If you’ve wanted a reason to purchase any of my scores, there’s no better time than right now. We’ve all got lots of time for score study coming up, after all…
Need another reason? Until June 1, 30% of all sales on gregsimonmusic.com will be donated directly to The Center for Disease Philanthropy’s COVID-19 Response Fund.
Stay healthy!
The incomparable University of Nebraska-Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, directed by my colleague and inspired composer/conductor Tyler White, premieres my new work for orchestra, Promise Me You Won’t Believe A Single Word, this afternoon at 3pm CT in Kimball Recital Hall on my home turf at the Glenn Korff School of Music! $5/$3 in person, or hear the live webcast by visiting music.unl.edu. There’s a lot more great chances to hear my work alongside great musicians and great friend coming up – keep an eye on this space, or follow me on social media at ‘gregsimonmusic’ for more information.
Gerald Noble and Henning Schröder perform Step Inside in the first feature of Greg’s music on the BMC subscription series! 7:30pm in Ingram Auditorium on Brevard College campus, $20 general admission. Tickets and more information at http://www.brevardmusic.org.
Blues in Red is performed as part of the honors for its win of the NACUSA 37th Annual Young Composers’ Competition. Gano Chapel at William Jewell College, Liberty, MO (just outside Kansas City). More info at https://www.music-usa.org/nacusa/.
The men from my old hometown of Corvallis, under the baton of Russ Christensen, take Spirit to the Northwest regional American Choral Directors’ Association Conference! Information about the performance here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cdQylkwe35pXZmhdwwRG0_on37fPKT5_rCkXcLzKpS4/edit
The brilliant Andrew Allen and Gordon Hicken of Rogue Two, who commissioned Step Inside for soprano 
sax and marimba, have just released their tremendous first album! The aptly-named Step Inside features the premiere recording of the same piece, alongside other amazing music by composer-friends Jesse Jones, Jay Batzner, and many others. Makes a terrific stocking stuffer for your favorite new music fan! Get it now via digital download here — CD’s available for order soon!
Every once in a while, I compose music for electronics which uses as its source American field recordings. These can include folk songs, narratives, or “found” sounds from somewhere in American life. I use these sources as beginning points, entering into a free dialogue with them and the stories they tell about what it means — and has meant — to be an American and to be an American artist. These pieces are loosely organized into an ongoing project which I call Dead Cowboys. My newest musical offering has its beginnings in the legendary American singer and storyteller Bessie Jones. In the source audio, Bessie is talking with sonic historian Alan Lomax and his wife, Antoinette Marchand. This entry into the Dead Cowboys series is entitled Pray For Rain.
Special thanks for this project’s completion goes to the Lomax archives at the Association for Cultural Equity, an invaluable resource for hidden sounds from the American past. Thanks also to Hunter Ewen for his help smoothing out the technical edges (Hunter is a terrific electronic composer in his own right — check out his website and see for yourself).
Dead Cowboys: Pray For Rain is available below via Soundcloud, and will be listed on gregsimonmusic.com shortly. Like everything else in my output, derivative works of Dead Cowboys are licensed under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0. For direct download or offline use, contact me directly.
The first performance of my original music in my new town! Marble and Glass is performed by the UNL Jazz Orchestra (with me at the helm) this Wednesday night, April 26 at 7:30pm! Kimball Recital Hall – admission is free. See you there!
Giovanni Santos – a great conductor, tremendous friend, and the original commissioner of For Angels, Slow Ascending – is taking his wind ensemble at La Sierra University to Europe this summer, and on Saturday, March 11 they’ll be holding a fundraising concert to help them get there. Featuring a ton of great music, and including For Angels, Slow Ascending in the original maestro’s hands. This is one not to miss!
7pm, $15-$10-$5. Tickets and more here.
As the calendar turns to 2017, I’ll be doing some small tweaks and redesigns to this space. Mostly cosmetic, which means you can still do all your favorite GSM things (listen, view, and purchase music by visiting the Music page, and find me on Twitter and Linkedin by visiting the homepage) uninterrupted. If you notice that something is missing or broken, don’t hesitate to let me know by using the Contact function, and I’ll get in touch with you right away.
