Performed as part of the Oregon State University Choirs’ concert event ‘Live as One – A Concert for Social Justice’. Performed by the OSU Meistersingers, directed by Russ Christensen. The LaSells-Stewart Center in Corvallis (my hometown!), 7:30pm. Free admission, but tickets recommended — reserve here.
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Two Orchids at the La Crosse New Music Festival
Performed by Josh Baker, at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. 7:30pm in Annett Recital Hall. More information at https://www.uwlax.edu/music.
Musing: The Listener
I never thought of myself as one who cared what critics thought. But when I got my first negative review, which basically called me a two-bit knockoff of Aaron Copland, it rattled around in my head for months.
Especially in those moments when I didn’t have something else to occupy my hands, I found them pressed against my temples thinking of my critic. I imagined him, thin-lipped and bald, dressed unseasonably in an ugly tweed suit (I don’t know what he looked like), and found myself incredulous that he could have seen in my work such a caricature of my goals. His two-dimensional view of my piece, myopic as it seemed to me, was frustrating, maybe even infuriating. Long after I’ve forgotten the critic’s name, his words stay with me. (more…)
Comp Lessons from Unlikely Teachers: Empty Houses
It’s a humid Sunday evening in June in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I’m on the patio of a 30-year-old white colonial house, sandwiched between a vibraphone on my right and an electric keyboard on my left. My horn reflects the golden light inside the house and the softer, bronzer glow from the light standards, flickering to life in the setting sun. The fireflies — which we never see in Colorado — are starting to pepper the air in the dining patio. Even as the heat loses its edge in the twilight, I’m sweating through my shirt in the thick Southern humidity.
I’m not thinking about any of that right this second, though — the waning sunlight replaced by fireflies, the light dancing on the bell of my instrument, the damp heaviness in the air — because right now someone in the small but jovial crowd has asked for Giant Steps, which I’ve never played in public. (more…)
New Sounds: “Dead Cowboys – Pray For Rain”
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.
UNL Jazz Orchestra – ‘Marble and Glass’
Directed by me! Performed as part of the ‘Music from UNL’ concert, alongside great music by UNL students and alumni. 7:30pm, Kimball Recital Hall – free admission.
UNL Jazz Orchestra performs Marble and Glass April 26!
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!
Performing with the UNL Faculty Jazz Ensemble (plus livestream!)
Featuring standards and originals, including a tune or two of mine! 7:30pm, Westbrook Music Building 119 at UNL, free admission.
Non-Lincolners: this event is livestreamed! View the stream for free at http://arts.unl.edu/music/webcasts.
Song Title Flash Fiction, Vol. 3
Every once in a while, in order to break the creative blocks, I write. My favorite project is to ask friends and colleagues for the titles of their favorite songs, promising to use them as the titles for new flash fiction (very short stories, only a few hundred words in length) and post the results here. Part exercise in new artistic directions, part homage to Mr. Tambourine Man, mostly an effort to fill this space with things worth reading.
I’m often working on these little flash stories behind the scenes, so if you have a suggestion for a title, share it on Twitter @gregsimonmusic, or email me using the Contact page. Here’s the third volume of song title flash fiction, with due credit to their respective sources. If you’re curious to hear the songs behind the titles, just click the artist names.
La Sierra University Wind Ensemble performs ‘For Angels, Slow Ascending’
Directed by Giovanni Santos, the extraordinary conductor who commissioned the work. This is a fundraising concert for LSU’s European tour this summer. Tickets and more here.
