Summer Exhaustion

I've neglected to post anything here recently, in part because of the intensity of Spring semester, which was a fascinating and very productive time. Our residencies and concerts at Pitt were really wonderful, and it was a consistent pleasure to interact with our guests. In March, the grad composers' music was played in concert by Ensemble Linea, and I was really happy with their performance of my piece, 1996. The night of that performance, I went home after hanging with everyone and (somewhat hastily) finished another piece that got played recently, which I submitted to the ensemble about three minutes before the deadline. There was a draft of a seminar paper due in the middle of that same week, and though the day after the Linea residency was a significant mile marker, things didn't really let up until the very end of the semester (about a month later).

Solo - South Side Slopes 4/29

Despite the hustle and bustle of the semester (finishing/rehearsing pieces is only scratching the surface), I managed to do well with everything - I have a decent idea of what the next four years might look like in terms of my work at Pitt, and what I should do in other places to supplement it.

One thing that really hit me close to the end of the semester was the 20 or so pounds I've gained while living here in Pittsburgh. Compared to the other places I've lived, Pittsburgh hasn't been as conductive to getting out and moving around - many of its neighborhoods are isolated by hills - this along with the solitary nature of academia has presented a new physical challenge to me. I'm starting to get better about walking places, and also preparing more of my own (healthier) food. Without a doubt, extra time during the summer is helping with both of those things. Cooking had been a calming endeavor for me in the the last five years or so, and I'm glad to have more time for it now. I've also started playing with a local brass band that's been helping to keep me busy, especially in terms of getting to know more people in the Pittsburgh community. This is a really strange admission, but in many respects I'm aspiring to a time when I was nearly broke. In retrospect I definitely maintained a healthier physical routine living in NY and VT, and there's a part of that I've been missing.

Westmoreland Museum of Art - Greensburg, PA

Taking on this issue now is super important because of what this summer has brought on. Immediately after wrapping up classes (around April 27th), I launched into a mini-marathon of performances that were pretty enlightening and wonderful (That first week alone is deserving of another post), and I'm in the middle of a similar run now. Soon after these gigs I departed for NY to take a break on Long Island for a few days, and work on duo material with Steve (Blank Space #13 was at the Firehouse Space in Brooklyn on May 17th). After this I took a bus to Boston to visit family, and see the NEC graduation. Though Pittsburgh is a good place to live and study, I've started to proactively address some of the things that I need to get from other places, and Boston is still an incredibly important place for a multitude of reasons, a few of which I'll outline below:

1.) Shortly after I got to Boston in May, a few of us who took Lyle Davidson's counterpoint class got together to sing renaissance motets. For years during the semester, Lyle has met with interested students and alums of his classes on Sunday evenings to sight-sing polyphonic music. I had no idea how important this would become to me as I've moved on, but it was beautiful to reconnect with people who value those kinds of musical and community-oriented activities.

2.) Similarly, I played a duo set at Outpost 186 with Eric Stillwell. Eric is a trombonist, and like many others in Boston we have some similar references for creating a piece of improvised music. This was our first time playing together in that context. I really enjoyed this, and I feel good about returning to the city in the future to play more of the music that is at times extremely difficult to create at a high level in other places.

Jordan Hall before 2016 commencement

After a couple of days visiting with family, I went back up to town to go to the NEC graduation ceremony. The people that graduated this year were the last batch of folks that I got to know decently well, and I was definitely tearing up a bit when everything started. They also had a great group of people to whom they were giving honorary doctorates. Among these were Anthony Braxton, Bernie Worell, and Leonard Slatkin. Slatkin's graduation address was probably the best of those that I'd heard in previous years, and I loved seeing Braxton and Worrell receive degrees from the school. During the awarding of degrees, I watched all of the improvisers shake Braxton's hand before continuing across the stage to get their diploma, and he seemed completely enlightened by the whole thing.  When several of us went upstairs to congratulate him after the ceremony, we talked about how we enjoyed working on his music in our ensembles. His response to everyone was an enthusiastic proclamation: "You Are the Future of Music."    

Outpost 186 entryway

In having covered so much ground on this trip, my last days in Boston that month were filled with great anxiety over the hospitalization of my grandmother, who passed away on June 13th. She had been dealing with an illness she described to me and the rest of our family in previous weeks as a cold, and though she sounded better when being treated in the hospital (we spoke several times before I came back this way), tests and a later surgery revealed that she was terminally ill.

Going back quite a few years, she never embraced technology the way the rest of my family had. Without a computer, email, or social media, our sole way of communicating was by phone. Whenever I visited, I would show her pictures (like ones posted here), and try to explain further just exactly how I was getting by. In comparison, she was reserved about her own experiences, especially as she aged. She was however, curious (and I suspect anxious) to see that I was doing well, especially when traveling, and during my first year out here. It's impossible to sum up the impact of any such loss, but more than anything I've described earlier, this is making me realize some of the things I need to change for myself. Some of this is intensely personal, but everything else I've pointed out gives some basic clues.

Possibly as a result of the previous two months, I came down with an awful cold that really messed with me. I hadn't been sick at all for a few years, and bad congestion stuck with me until about a week ago. Since the summer months began, what started out as a conscious moment of -not- writing music has turned into an extended (but necessary) break. The fast pace of the year coupled with a lower level of physical activity has really caught up with me, and I'm just starting to feel like I'm outrunning it. That I have a steady schedule for the remainder of Summer is reassuring, but I'll certainly be glad when the semester starts. We all know that culturally speaking, 2016 hasn't been a great year, and it can be really difficult to  even just read the news at the beginning of every morning. Though things are picking up nicely for me, I'll be glad when more people return to town, and the weather cools down a bit. I'll follow up shortly with images from some of the great gigs that have happened this summer, but in the meantime, here's a picture from my return trip to PA, and some recent tracks. For anyone who's interested, I recently started an instagram account as well.

1st avenue & 10th street, Manhattan

New Tracks: