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Mark Abel premiere with Hila Plitmann

Another successful collaboration with Mark Abel is complete. Prominent soprano Hila Plitmann gave a powerful and memorable performance of “The Palm Trees Are Restless,” a song cycle he wrote for voice and piano. Set to texts of Kate Gale, it garnered unanimous praise from the reviewers of Mark’s “Home Is a Harbor” CD package. On October 1, 2016, she and outstanding pianist Tali Tadmor premiered the work at the Boston Court Performing Arts Center in Pasadena, CA. The program received a standing ovation. I did no orchestration on the Palm Trees song cycle, I was only Mark’s music copyist.

Author Dr. Kate Gale is managing editor of Red Hen Press, editor of the Los Angeles Review, and president of the American Composers Forum, LA. We were fortunate to have her at the performance also.

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Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith album

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith is a singer and classical guitar and piano player who evolved into an electronic musician who focuses on modular synthesis. I just completed a project with her in which live orchestral musicians in Berlin were recorded in loop-ready segments. Those loops will be processed, sequenced, and mixed with her electronic sounds. I was her orchestrator and music copyist, and it was a pleasure to work with her on such an unusual collision of musical worlds.

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Gramophone review of Home Is A Harbor

Gramophone has been one of the most respected names in classical music for more than 100 years, and it’s an honor to have my work reviewed in their Gramophone magazine.

“Home Is A Harbor” is a new opera by Mark Abel which I orchestrated, and I also helped to rehearse the musicians and produce the first recording of it. The album was released about 6 months ago, and today this review was published in Gramophone. We’re very happy to see that the opera was well received, and we look forward to the first live productions of it.

“The cast is strong, and Benjamin Makino conducts La Brea Sinfonietta in a vivid performance.”

“…a colourful blend of styles, ranging from classical and jazz to hints of rock … serve the emotional nature of each score to bracing and poignant effect.”

Pierce Brosnan film

Pierce Brosnan stars in The King’s Daughter, a new film scored by composer Grant Kirkhope. It is based on the historical/sci-fi novel The Moon and the Sun by Vonda N. McIntyre, and Brosnan plays King Louis XIV. The film will be released later this year by Paramount. I orchestrated for Grant with the extraordinary Penka Kouneva.

Another Mark Abel song cycle

Mark Abel has just completed yet another song cycle, for which I was again his music copyist. Entitled “In The Rear View Mirror, Now” they illustrate again how very unique Mark’s artistic voice is. I have worked with him since 2010, and it’s always a pleasure.

Ninja Turtles movie release

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been around since the late 80’s, and it was my pleasure to be part of the orchestration team for the summer blockbuster “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows” produced by Nickelodeon and Paramount. The film score was composed by Steve Jablonsky, and our orchestration team was led by Penka Kouneva. We recorded a wonderful union orchestra at Warner Brothers Studios.

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Stewart Copeland hand manuscript on cedar birch bark

Some gifts are so perfect they’re a real pleasure to give. I may never again make a manuscript this interesting.

I peeled this bark 12 years ago from a cedar birch tree in New Hampshire. I have been waiting 12 years for the right time, the right recipient, and the right piece of music. All three had to align for it to be worthy of this one-of-a-kind creation.

My decades of music engraving, my many years of working with Stewart Copeland, his love for craftsmanship and detail in all forms of art, and the big success of the Ben Hur live shows created the perfect storm for me to finally create the old-world manuscript I envisioned.

This is a new piece of art which is also a backwards-looking homage to the art of a time past, just like the Ben Hur show itself. It’s perfect!

I wanted to keep it, but it will have a much more meaningful life in Stewart’s studio…

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Copeland’s “Tyrant’s Crush”

The New West Symphony just performed a new symphony by Stewart Copeland, for which I was the music copyist and contributing orchestrator. The first concerto written with his own drumset performance in mind, it features his brilliant drumming plus complimentary parts for members of the percussion section and an array of exotic percussion. The work celebrates the un-tapped virtuosity of the symphonic percussion section and demonstrates that the distance between rock drummer and timpani virtuoso is not as far as one may think.
Thursday, May 12, 2016, Santa Monica
Friday, May 13, 2016, Oxnard
Saturday, May 14, 2016, Thousand Oaks