Daniel Powers

Archive for the ‘performances’ Category

Too long since I’ve updated this category. Let’s see…

My saxophone quartet Between Spring and Summer was performed six times in Thailand by the Nomine Saxophone Quartet, a student group here at ISU, in connection with the 16th World Saxophone Congress in Bangkok. It was a great experience for them, and my music was heard by a lot of people, which is good.

Cloudscapes for flute octet has been performed three times so far this fall by the ISU Flute Ensemble. They will also perform it at ISU’s Contemporary Music Festival next month. Also, Amy Chandler, who plays alto flute, will include it on her senior recital, which I think is on November 8. Five performances altogether. Not bad. I’ll post a recording as soon as I can.

My friend Allison Edberg is giving a recital in about an hour, featuring a couple of my own pieces. At her request, I realized the figured bass to a group of Marin Marais’ viola da gamba pieces, which she is performing with Martha (on piano, since ISU’s harpsichord is a piece of crap), and Kurt Fowler on baroque cello. She and I are talking about doing a set of Marais transcriptions for publication. They’re really quite interesting.

She is also performing my song cycle from a few years ago, The Rain Is Full Of Ghosts. She’s performing with Martha on piano and Colleen Davis singing. Martha and Colleen gave the first few performances, with me on viola. It’s fun hearing Allison do it though, because she’s a million times better than me.

Also, Steve Lippia performed with the Carmel Symphony in Indianapolis on Saturday. His program was mostly the same as the one he did in Columbus last month, including three of the arrangements I did for him. I drove up to hear him (thanks to Kurt Fowler for getting me the ticket), and the show was great. Steve sounded good, and the Carmel Symphony is wonderful.

My recital had been scheduled to take place on Wednesday this week, but the weather had other ideas. That day, of course, we had the biggest snowfall in 24 years!

Damien, who had to come from Indianapolis, was unable to come. Good thing he didn’t try, because there was a huge pileup on I-70. Kurt Fowler, though, was coming from Indianapolis too, and he made it. A couple of saxophonists were driving in from Crawfordsville, and for a while, there was some uncertainty about whether they were going to come in. But eventually they said they were going to make it, so I decided to put on an abbreviated recital.

Then ISU announced that they were closing the campus in the evening. So, no recital!

Martha and I spent the afternoon rescheduling everything. The recital hall was open on Friday, so we reserved it, and started calling around to see if everyone could come. Miraculously, everyone could!

It finally took place last night, and went off without a hitch. Everyone played beautifully, and the recital was pretty well attended. And I got a great recording. When I have time to work on it, I plan to upload some recordings.

I feel a little guilty, since it was my recital, but I didn’t really do anything. Everyone worked hard, and all I did was sit there and listen. I’m truly lucky to have such a dedicated group of performers to work with, and all their work is deeply appreciated.

I can’t allow another 25 years to pass before I give a recital again. But the next one will not be in January!

I’ve mentioned my upcoming recital a few times already, but haven’t gone into much detail. Since it is now only five days away, some detail would seem to be appropriate here.

First of all, I hate to think about this, but this is the first composition recital I will have given since my years as a grad student, approximately 25 years ago! Hard to believe. Hopefully the next one won’t have to wait until another 25 years have passed (which would make me 73 years old).

The performance will be next Wednesday, January 28, in the recital hall at Indiana State University, Terre Haute IN. Everyone’s been working hard, and I expect everything to go smoothly. If the recordings turn out well, I’ll try to post them later.

I’ll be typing up the program and writing program notes over the next few days. Here’s the program;

Links II for alto saxophone and cello
Paul Bro, saxophone, and Kurt Fowler, cello

O You Whom I Often and Silently Come
Sometimes With One I Love
Damien Geter, bass, and Martha Krasnican, piano

Chorale
Scherzino
Martha Krasnican, piano

Were You There
Deep River
My God Is A Rock
Damien Geter, bass, and Martha Krasnican, piano

Between Spring And Summer
Nomine Saxophone Quartet

Wish me luck.

My arrangement of Back Home In Indiana will be performed at the National Cathedral in Washington DC on Sunday morning. The Vigo County School Corporation Select Choir, who commissioned the arrangement for this concert, will be performing at 10:45 as the prelude choir for a service at 11:15. I’m told it will be broadcast live over the internet. Go to the National Cathedral’s home page where a link to streming audio should appear.

Edit: June 15. Apparently I was misinformed. I just watched the broadcast, and while the choir sounded great, my arrangement was nowhere to be heard. I don’t know what the situation is here. Hopefully I’ll find out soon.

Edit: June 18. OK, here’s the deal. They didn’t perform it at the National Cathedral, but they did perform it twice at various receptions during their trip. Good. That actually makes more sense than to perform it as part of a church service. So it turns out I wasn’t actually misinformed, just confused. Sorry.

A bit late to report this, but the Concerto Piccolo received its world premiere on Saturday (March 1). Kate Prouty was the wonderful soloist, and the Terre Haute Symphony was conducted by David Bowden.

It seems to have been a success. I was playing in my usual spot in the first viola stand, so I didn’t really hear what the audience heard, but from what I could tell, Kate played beautifully and the orchestra played well. I got a lot of nice compliments from orchestra members and after the concert, many audience members took the time to tell me how much they enjoyed it. At the Concert Comments before the show, David said he expects it to become a repertory item and be played all over the country. Let’s hope he’s right.

This e-mail from Kate just arrived. She said I could post it on my website if I like, and I will next time I update it, but for now, I’ll just put it here.

Hello!
We just did our world premiere of CONCERTO PICCOLO on March 1, at Tilson Hall at Indiana State Univerisity (Terre Haute Symphony), and if I say so myself, it was a fantastic success!

So many audience members commented on how much they liked the melodic parts, and how impressive the “fireworks” were! 

When we played it together (the orchestra and me), it got better and better.  It felt like the orchestra was the engine, and my part simply emerged from it.  I hope many piccoloists all over the world get the chance to play this in its orchestral version.  While the piano reduction is good, it simply does not give the same support. 

Thank you for creating such a funny, witty, challenging and enjoyable piece, Dan! 

You’re welcome, Kate!