Tomorrow night at the 1,200-seat La Mirada Theater, a musical theater show called An American Victory has its first show. This video is a great preview of it. I’ve been working with composer Lou Bucalo as arranger and orchestrator, my good friend and colleague Gentry Tennyson is music director, and about 6,300 printed pages of sheet music are currently in use at the LA Musician’s Union practice space in the final rehearsal. It features Broadway cast members from Les Miserables and Aladdin, and I look forward to hearing it come to life. It’s been a heavy push to make it to this performance, so I also look forward to a good nap!
White House screens a film I orchestrated and conducted!
My work has made it all the way up to the White House for the second time! The first time it was sheet music preparation for Fiesta Latina at the White House in 2013. Today in the White House screening room they showed Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer.
I orchestrated the score for composer Boris Zelkin in 2016, and also conducted the recording sessions with a union orchestra at Castle Row Studios in Oklahoma City, OK. It’s a real surprise and honor to have an audience as prestigious as the White House staff, so many congrats to Ann McElhinney, Phelim McAleer, Magdalena Segieda, John Sullivan, Nick Searcy, Boris Zelkin, and the rest of the team.
ASMAC music preparation seminar
ASMAC, the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers, is one of the most prestigious organizations of actively working composers in the world. I had the great honor to give a presentation at one of their seminars yesterday, which was both a pleasure and a daunting thing because at least half of the audience was people who I respect very much and whose insights I would love to listen to in a seminar.
The seminar was titled The Art Of Music Preparation “Notation Creation.” The event tonight basically walked through the music preparation process in the hopes that we could give the audience some usable tips and tricks about the best ways to get their music from concept to finished, printed, and published music.
My portion of the presentation shows my most time-efficient methods of getting MIDI out of a DAW and into a music notation program. Wayne Kiser, a veteran music copyist with a specialization in modern notation, followed with a presentation on the intricacies of music preparation for traditional classical orchestras. Ryan Beard comes from the sheet music publishing world and discussed the detailed science of preparing notation for publication, as well as his work at the Kjos Music Company. Liz Finch is a music copyist and an icon of music preparation in Los Angeles, and she talked about the history and practicality of Hollywood studio notation, followed by Q&A from the audience. ASMAC’s president, Gayle Levant wrapped up the evening discussing the importance of the art of music preparation from a player’s perspective, including some valuable harp notation tips.
I was in excellent company, happily outclassed by the other panelists and many of the audience members, and I hope to do more with ASMAC in the future. The seminar was at LA Valley College.
Arranging and orchestrating for Vashon Island Chorale
The Vashon Island Chorale is a choir of 80-100 people, plus orchestra, plus children’s choir led by Gary Cannon, who is a brilliant conductor in the Seattle area and also an old friend from our university days at UC Davis. I began my career as a classical pianist and singer, and it’s always a fun treat to write for ensembles that are so close to my musical roots. Beginning from piano music, I arranged and orchestrated a portion of their concert program specifically for their ensemble. Their 30th anniversary concert will be April 27-28 at the Vashon Center for the Arts. The program includes familiar classics by Bernstein, Copland, and Fauré, Vaughan Williams, Borodin, and local composers Eric Lane Barnes and Buzz Brusletten, plus a quartet of extraordinary local soloists.
Toronto Symphony plays Stewart Goodyear piano concerto
Tonight the Royal Conservatory and Toronto Symphony Orchestra puts on a concert of almost entirely new music, including a piano concerto written and performed by Stewart Goodyear. Proclaimed “a phenomenon” by the Los Angeles Times and “one of the best pianists of his generation” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Stewart Goodyear is an accomplished young pianist as a concerto soloist, chamber musician, recitalist, and composer. His vision for the piece is very precise and clear, and it was an honor to be the music copyist for Stewart’s new piano concerto, and for conductor Tania Miller and the Toronto Symphony.
Ukulele book published by Disegni Music
Composer and music professor Loretta K. Notareschi has written a set of etudes for Ukulele which has just been published by Disegni Music. Titled Five Etudes for Solo Ukulele, they are fingerstyle studies for the advanced beginner, and quite accessible if you’re interested in developing deeper skills on the uke. I did the final music engraving of the book, which has both notation and tablature.
Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer
Finally released today!
In 2016 I orchestrated a film for composer Boris Zelkin called Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer. Today the movie from Hat Tip Films was released in 750 theaters nationwide.
Kermit Gosnell was an abortion doctor who somehow escaped inspections of his facilities for 18 years. By the end of that time the conditions were dire and both women and babies were dying at a remarkable rate. He was convicted of three counts of murder and life in prison without parole.
The story is not exclusively for the pro-life crowd. In 2013 Dayle Steinberg and Eric Ferrero, president and vice president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, wrote in an article “Gosnell ran a criminal enterprise, not a healthcare facility, and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.”
Hat Tip Films had difficulty making the film because of the topic, and it got caught up in litigation once complete, but now it finally has a nationwide release. It’s is a crime drama and the main characters are the cops, so it’s not a political opinion piece. The story is true, it has never gotten much media coverage, and it can inform arguments on both sides of the abortion debate. I recommend you see it.
Mark Abel Named Delos Co-Director
Many congratulations to Mark Abel, a longtime client and collaborator, for becoming the co-director of Delos. The Delos record label is one of the last and greatest classical music labels, and I have supported Mark with sheet music prep and orchestrations on five Delos releases to date. The releases have gone so well he’s not just a recording artist any more, he’s helping to run the label!
Mark willfully entered the contemporary classical music world relatively late in life, after ending a long career as a journalist and changing directions. His determination, focus, and self-education are significant, and the fruits of his labor are clearly showing. In addition to co-directing Delos with Carol Rosenberger we are also working on the next album project which will come out sometime next year, so he’s not slowing down.
My first collaboration with Mark was in 2011. In the last 8 years his music career has gone basically from zero to having a large catalogue and co-directing a label. Many congratulations Mark! I’m happy for you.
A House With A Clock In Its Walls released
Nothing is better than bringing a childhood fantasy to life!
Today, the film A House With A Clock In Its Walls was released by Universal Pictures. It was an immense pleasure for me to orchestrate this film with Penka Kouneva for film composer Nathan Barr, because the book was a childhood favorite of mine. I still have the John Bellairs trilogy I read as a boy, and I brought my old childhood books to the recording sessions. It was a truly wonderful experience to hold my childhood keepsakes while listening to the orchestral music I worked on come to life.
These recording sessions were also the very first full orchestra sessions at Nathan Barr’s recently completed facility Bandrika Studio. He built the studio entirely around the old Fox Wurlitzer theater organ which he has been restoring for the last 5 years, and it’s now happily back in service. It’s far more than an organ, because in addition to the 2000+ pipes the player can also play piano, glockenspiel, xylophone, marimba, vibraphone, celesta, drums, and a wide array of percussion. It’s a mechanical wonder all powered by air pressure and springs, and this was also the first score for which the organ has been used in decades. The studio and the organ are both in business!
The film is a fantastic, fun, quirky experience that’s JUST scary enough for a 10 year old to feel spooked but still sleep well. Jack Black and Cate Blanchett are fantastic as always, and I highly recommend the film.
More photos of our recording session are on ScoringSessions.com.
