Previously released on Amazon and just just released today on iTunes:

A fascinating documentary called Dare To Drum about a daring 3-year musical endeavor, the creative process, and the week of chaos that nearly killed the premiere concerts.

In 2011 I worked with composer Stewart Copeland to put on a concert that combined a full Indonesian gamelan orchestra with a traditional western orchestra. A whole new custom gamelan had to be built to manage the disparate tunings, and I needed to invent a lot of new notation for the vast array of percussion which is traditionally not written down.

Three years of instrument building and artistic work went into the whole process, the percussion ensemble D’Drum was commissioned to bring it to life, and then the premiere with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra was nearly canceled due to freak snow storms in Texas. The whole city was snowed in Thurs-Sun and it looked like everything was going to fail miserably, but luckily the last show on Sunday night happened and it was a brilliant success.

Stewart’s music is fantastic as always, the guys from D’Drum are brilliant musicians, and Jaap van Zweden was a fierce conductor just right for this ambitious endeavor. I highly recommend this documentary to all who have an interest in world music, alternative uses of the orchestra, and real-life documentary drama.

The film’s website is DareToDrumFilm.com.

I was primarily the music copyist and engraver for Stewart Copeland and G. Schirmer, but I also had a little bit of input as an additional orchestrator.