Hello, Newgrounds-ers! Newgrounds-lings! News...grounded...I'm really not sure what to call you people.

It's nice to see a new animation in my feed from @scottwjsm - Solid State Drive is a mesmerizing little music video that puts me in mind of 1) Grave of the Fireflies, that terribly sad war film by Akiyuki Nosaka; and 2) The Red Balloon, an almost-silent film about a French boy who becomes friends with a balloon.

Every month I check in like this and post a video update, so here is my regular newsletter for this past July. I think probably the main thing of relevance in this one is The Emperor's New Clothes: this track I posted on Newgrounds last year got a live premiere performance in July, by a professional violinist and an opera singer. Pretty cool! But if you still want to check out my lo-fi original you can still listen to it here, weirdo.

Ballet Austin

July was mostly dominated by my work at Ballet Austin, where I play the piano for dance classes. Last month I played for their yearly Summer Intensive, which is an educational program for serious ballet students ages 11-22. And "intense" was a pretty good word for this. These developing dancers were focused and eager to improve, and they received a lot of specific guidance and encouragement from the faculty. I recorded some of the piano music I made for these ballet sessions. If you're a subscriber to my website, you have access to these recordings on the exclusive content page.

Private Lessons

I taught a lot of private lessons in July. I teach at Premier Music Academy, the Armstrong Community Music School, and Timbral Music Studios in Round Rock. If you live in the area and you're interested in taking piano lessons with me, I do still have a couple of slots available at Timbral Music Studios, but I expect them to be filled in the next couple months. So hit me up sooner rather than later.

I've also started sharing my lesson materials online, so there's a section on my students page now that lists some free worksheets and arrangements that I've made for lessons. These materials have already been useful for me, so if they're useful for somebody else too, even better.

"High Strung"

Another big project in July was the High Strung concert, which was organized by "Central Texas Composers" or CTC, a group that I'm a part of here. High Strung was a collaborative project to produce new music for violin and piano. We met our fundraising goal for the project and had the concert on July 30. The show featured five new premieres in various musical styles. And I thought it went extremely well.

What I liked the most about this concert was the amount of variety between the different composers. You could really feel everyone's personality come through their music. My piece was a live rendition of "The Emperor's New Clothes". I worked with Julie Silva as the narrator and Phil Davidson on violin. Those video recordings will be available soon. Many thanks to our donors on Facebook and Indiegogo, who helped us make sure the performers in this concert were appropriately compensated for their time.

Austin Public & The Underground ATX

I've started volunteering every week at Austin Public, the local television station. The show I'm working on is called The Underground, produced by MVB Productions every Tuesday evening. The Underground is a kind of an open mic variety show. It features local comedians, storytellers, and musicians. The show is just getting going, really, but it's been thrilling to watch it come together. I'm not completely sure where this interest is going for me, but it feels like this is something I want to be a part of. It's just fun to meet creative people, and to support local talent. And of course to get to hold a camera for a little while.

Thrift-Ish Benefit Concert

Finally, I mentioned a few months ago that I was interested in doing a benefit concert for Thrift-ish. Thrift-ish is a local non-profit that provides clothes for homeless people. I'm pleased to announce that this concert has been confirmed for December 6 at the Trinity Church of Austin. It will be a Christmas concert oriented around raising money and donations for Thrift-ish.

Now I want to make this concert as big and as fun as possible, so I'm reaching out to local musicians to participate and perform together as one big group. Kind of like Tuba Christmas, except with a bunch of different instruments. So if you're watching this and you're a musician who 1) lives in Austin, 2) can read music fluently, and 3) is able and willing to come to one rehearsal in October and November (dates to be announced), please reach out to me. I'll be finalizing the ensemble for this in the coming months, and arranging the music for whatever group we settle on.

And that's about it. Thanks for reading this far (I hope it was interesting!). See you next month :)

Ben

Hello, Newgrounds! How are you? Happy (belated) Pico Day! This post is my usual monthly update, but first some gushing about artists I like on Newgrounds...

I got a pleasant blast of nostalgia here recently when @Waterflame released a new version of Glorious Morning. No matter what I still associate that track with the 2010 animation Beauty is Humanity.

And it's great to see @Whirlguy is still active with his latest release, Absurdism. I think that was the first time I've ever heard his voice in a track. Awesome! @Whirlguy I've been following you since like 2008, and I appreciate that you keep sharing your work.

I also admired the latest track from @Troisnyx, Glass Rainbow. She has a lovely style of composition; it's sophisticated and sometimes complex, but always beautiful and accessible.

Finally if you like my music you should really check out @Trippple, who is definitely a kindred spirit musically and has been putting out some truly gorgeous work.

Personal Life

I spent most of this past June visiting family up in Maine. I had the opportunity to see some old friends, hang out with the folks, and enjoy the pleasant weather this time of year in New England. While visiting I stayed at the house in which I grew up, in my home town of Windsor.

I took the opportunity to dig through some stuff I'd left there as a kid, including about four hundred musical sketches I made in high school. I used to have a bus ride of about twenty to thirty minutes in the mornings, and I would kill that time by sketching in a little book of manuscript paper. When I got to school, if I had the chance I would try out the melodies on the trumpet or piano. On occasion I would run materials by the jazz combo group at Erskine Academy. You can view these sketches on my early work page.

In addition to these sketches, last month I made three new updates to my website.

Audio Store

First, I uploaded two new tracks to my Audio Store. This is a small but growing resource of tracks designed to be used in media (e.g. games and videos). I'm adding new tracks to the Audio Store every month.

These tracks are free to listen to, and in most cases I've included sheet music to go along with the recordings. If you are a content creator interested in using one of these tracks in your media, become a subscriber to bentibbetts.net. You will have access to all the resources on the Audio Store as well as a page of exclusive content.

Birth of a Gorgon

The second project I released in June was an experimental animation called Birth of a Gorgon. This was a collaboration with mezzo-soprano Liz Cass and writer Ken Hallowell. This music began its life as an art song based on Ken's poem. It tells the origin story of a mythical Gorgon in ancient Greek mythology (e.g. Medusa).

The animation in Birth of a Gorgon was generated by artificial intelligence. It's strange, alien, and sometimes disturbing--and for these reasons I think it fits the subject matter perfectly.

Music from Porco Rosso

Finally, in June I also posted a piano arrangement that I made of music from Porco Rosso, one of the many fantastical animated films from Studio Ghibli in Japan. Like classic Disney films, the animated movies from Studio Ghibli use storytelling to explore the human condition. They often feature elements from mythology, magic, and surrealism. In Porco Rosso, the main character is a World War I fighter pilot who has been turned into a pig by a magical curse.

Like many of Studio Ghibli's films, the score was written by composer Joe Hisaishi, whose style was influenced by both jazz and classical music. One of my piano students wanted to play some of the music from this movie, but neither of us could find an arrangement online that we felt comfortable with, so I made this one. The sheet music is available for subscribers to my website, and a performance of the arrangement has been posted on YouTube.

"High Strung" Violin Concert

My main project this month coming up is a violin concert called "High Strung". This is collaboration with Graham Yates, Brittney Benavidez, Carol Brown, and Keith Allegretti. It's a concert comprised of premiers of original music for violin and piano. Each of us has a piece on this program.

We're currently raising money to help pay these performers what they deserve. If you'd like to contribute to this, here is a link to the fundraiser. All of the proceeds will go straight to the performers; I and the other composers will not be taking a cut. Plus, if you visit the fundraiser page, you get to see a very "special" promotional video we've all put together.

So that's what's been going on with me lately. Hopefully some of that's interesting and useful! If you like my content here on Newgrounds you can follow me to be updated when I post things.

Thanks as always for your interest and support.

Ben

Hello Newgrounds, how are you? I've been following the new 40oz Bouncer series from @ToonHole with some pleasure. Reminds me a bit of Sublo and Tangy Mustard, though sketchier and more quickly-animated. And some other long-time favorites have been showing up in my feed: @Carrion with colorful illustrations; @JamesLee as Nox, a darkly disturbed Internet commentator; and @Dohn and @TheTankTribune sharing a number of articles and digital newspapers on Newgrounds culture.

Here's my monthly update as usual, as just a video this time. Incidentally one of the items I mention is an interview with Christopher Carlone; Chris has written music for web series like The Angry Video Game Nerd and Domics, but he also has a Newgrounds presence with music for Waterworks and some of the animations by @Extellus.

Anyway, here's my quick video showing the life of a freelance pianist in May 2022. Enjoy :)

Hey Newgrounds! Happy...4/21? After the April Fools prank this year and the subsequent Dankmen contest, I imagine some of us are a bit less high today than yesterday. Pretty amazing to see the hundreds of Dankmen art submissions in the last 2-3 weeks.

I just posted my regular update on YouTube, but before I get to that I have a quick announcement that is more Newgrounds-specific. I had the opportunity recently to interview David Orr (of Castle Crashers fame) for my studio blog, and if you follow me here I think you'd probably enjoy it. David is a great musician but as you'll see in this interview he also has some interesting things to say about sound design and music education. There's a lot here. It's well worth checking out if you're an artist/creator of any stripe. Here's a link to the full interview:

Symphony in a Sound: an interview with David Orr

And now here's my video update.

Personal Life

In March, I moved into a new apartment. It was overdue. I needed a place that was more affordable. I lucked out and found a spot close to downtown (about 10 minutes), with some roommates who I like and trust.

Video Game Music

I composed more music than usual recently, participating as a composer in two game jams.

A game jam is an event where programmers compete to create the best game possible in a very short time span (like a weekend). They can work alone or in teams. I worked with teams in Mini Jam #102 and Ludum Dare #50.

Sam Levreault's Master's Recital

In early April, I flew to Massachusetts to perform with flutist Samantha Levreault. Sam is pursuing her master's at UMass Amherst, and a master's recital was one of the requirements for graduation. This one was unusual, though.

Back in 2020, Sam commissioned me to write a flute sonata. I worked on it from home when the pandemic hit. The result was Club Sonata, a huge piece in four movements. This was a big project for both of us. It was difficult, jazz- and dance-inspired music that pushed our abilities. When it was done, we commissioned an artist (Janina Putzker) to help produce a score that was colorful and beautiful. Then we premiered it on this master's recital.

I can't convey how satisfying this was. I'm very proud of this music. It was a privilege to perform it with Sam (on my birthday, no less). And it went well. A recording of the show can be seen at bentibbetts.net/slmasters. The score for the flute sonata is available to subscribers.

New Content in March and April 2022

There's a bunch more stuff I didn't get into above, including interviews, a behind-the-scenes video about my composing process, and classical performances at the First U.U. of Austin. Here's a full rundown of the new content these past two months, in the order it was released.

"The Joy of Composing": a behind-the-scenes video about creating new music, inspired by Bob Ross. - www.bentibbetts.net/joyofcomposing

New in the Audio Store: Grassy Fields for clarinet and marimba; and Man's Best Friend for solo piano. - www.bentibbetts.net/audiostore

Performances at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin: music by Schumann, Copland, McDowell, Grieg, Chaminade, and Debussy - www.bentibbetts.net/uu

Video Game Music for Mini Jam #102: "The Bot That Refused To Die" - www.bentibbetts.net/minijam102

"Music And Joy": an interview with singer/songwriter Nick Dauphinais - www.bentibbetts.net/musicandjoy

"Symphony in a Sound": an interview with composer/sound designer David Orr - www.bentibbetts.net/symphonyinasound

Samantha Levreault's Master's Recital: a performance at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the premiere of "Club Sonata" - www.bentibbetts.net/slmasters

And that about does it! If you're subscribed to this channel on Newgrounds, I appreciate your interest and I invite you to keep in touch. Feel free to write back in a comment or direct message letting me know how you're doing. Until next time, take care.

Ben

Hello, Newgrounds, how are you? I was happy to see a new Salad Fingers here a few days ago. @Doki is every bit as good as always, and Salad Fingers feels like an exploration of mental illness/delusion as much as a darkly humorous work of art.

This is just a quick video message to check in like I usually do near the start of the month. I talk about what it's like to be a piano accompanist and the creative things I've been up to lately.

UIL

In February I spent most of my time working as a piano accompanist for UIL events.

The UIL (University Interscholastic League) is an Austin-based organization that administers competitions among public Texas primary and secondary schools. For my purposes, it's a series of music competitions.

At UIL competitions, individual students and student ensembles perform music and judges rate them one through five on their performances (with one being the best). My job is to accompany these students on the piano and help them sound good.

TRINITY AND FIRST U.U.

I performed for the Trinity Church of Austin and the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin, both of whom I'd worked with before.

Trinity had remote services, so they hired me to record pieces for their pre-edited Sunday services. Each week, I sat down and recorded music to the music director's specifications. This was really fun for me. It let me indulge in my perfectionist side. If a recording doesn't sound right the first time, one can always do another take. And another, and another...

Anyway, I'm really proud of these recordings for Trinity, especially my improvisations on "O, Waly, Waly" and "Wade In The Water".

Hear the Trinity recordings: www.bentibbetts.net/trinity

For the First Unitarian Universalist, I performed live at their beautiful facility. Those services provided me with opportunities to learn, explore, and promote repertoire I hadn't performed before. I tried a couple new pieces and had a great time playing for their services.

Watch the U.U. performances: www.bentibbetts.net/uu

LIVE RECITALS

I helped organize two unrelated recitals in February at the Armstrong Community Music School. These passion projects took a lot of time, but I was happy to do it.

The first performance was a program of premiers by local composers, including three pieces by myself. The concert was called "Bitter Valentine's". It featured arias centered around the themes of love, rejection, and betrayal. There was a lot of variety on the program. (I even performed a weird skit / live version of my Newgrounds track Prototype.)

Watch the Bitter Valentine's show: www.bentibbetts.net/valentines

The other show was a clarinet and voice recital with clarinetist Mary Schani and mezzo soprano Liz Cass. We performed music by Schumann (3 Romances), Schubert (Shepherd on the Rock), Mozart (a selection from his last opera, The Clemency of Titus), and Brahms (Clarinet Sonata #2).

Watch the clarinet and voice recital: www.bentibbetts.net/clarinet

NEW CONTENT FOR SUBSCRIBERS

Because of all the performances, I didn't do as much composing as usual last month, which was a bummer. But I did put out some new material for subscribers to my website, including some audio recordings from one of my Ballet Austin classes. As some of you know, I accompany for dance teachers at Ballet Austin, which gives me a chance to improvise in public.

This selection is about forty minutes of music. It's intended to be background music, but I think it's still nice to listen to on its own. I'm proud of the piano playing I do at that organization. It brings me a lot of satisfaction.

Hear samples: www.bentibbetts.net/balletaustin

CONCLUSION

Before I end this message, I want to thank Armstrong Community Music School for being so supportive of me lately. The Valentine's concert and the clarinet recital both took place at the school. They also sponsored two other events I performed in last week, the ACMS Rhapsody events. Among other things, these two concerts celebrated the work of pianist Karen White, who is one of my colleagues at ACMS. I performed with flutist and vocalist Monica Salas, violinist Phil Davidson, and vocalists Julia Taylor and Liz Cass.

As always, if you'd like to support my activities you can subscribe to my website at www.bentibbetts.net. For a couple of dollars every month you get access to subscriber-only content including more musical audio, sheet music, and whatever else I'm working on.

Subscribe: www.bentibbetts.net/subscribe

Thanks very much!

Ben

Newgrounds, my god, you're killing it! I think I'm going to marathon the Pixel Day music tonight. It's great to see the community here so vibrant.

I missed my regular update last month, but I've made up for it with a special hour-long video. It's sort of an update but it's also a lesson/discussion for musicians who want to freelance (especially pianists). The video is divided into sections for easy viewing. I hope it's useful for somebody! I know a lot of this would have been helpful to me a few years ago.

And one Newgrounds-relevant thing I don't want to miss here: I recently wrote music for an old Newgrounds collaborator Seth Johnson, and he's revamped his macabre animation The Muffin Man which we worked on together in 2012. The original was a dark, gruesome cartoon about an old man who captures and eats children, thereby staying alive a little bit longer. He wants to make it into an animated series! Here's the new trailer, which I did music for. Featuring Phil Cornwell, Murdoc from the Gorillaz!

If you're an animator and you want to work on this project visit muffinmanseries.com.

And if you're feeling nostalgic you can watch the original Muffin Man here on Newgrounds.

Hello, Newgrounds! It seemed like there was a lot of activity here last month. I just noticed today is the deadline for the Streamers Universe Animation War, offering $3000 in prizes. Damn, not bad! And Hyptosis's art contest just finished a few days ago. It's great to see Newgrounds incentivizing so much creativity.

Here is my monthly update as usual. I like doing these. It feels like a sort of marker for myself, and a chance to reflect on how work has been going. Maybe it's interesting as a description of life as a professional musician. Enjoy!

At the beginning of November, I traveled up to Western Massachusetts and to record music with flutist Sam Levreault. Sam and I have collaborated for a couple of years on various projects. This month we recorded music by Mozart, John Williams, Gaubert, and Bizet. I think we'll release these recordings next year. It was great to be back to the Pioneer Valley. Autumn is a great time of year in New England: colorful and vibrant, and a temperature that's cool but not yet cold.

I don't have an affiliation with any particular church right now, but I am working as a substitute pianist. It's nice; I get to experience different performance spaces, meet different congregations, and observe different styles of worship. Last month I played at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin, the Trinity Church of Austin, and the Memorial United Methodist Church. The recordings from the U.U. performances are available online.

The thing I was most proud of this month was hosting the New Sounds concert. This featured music by local and student composers of all ages and experience levels. The concert was livestreamed, and then the audio was edited and uploaded to YouTube. This was a wonderful experience. I'm honored to have presented this music.

I continued to work at Ballet Austin as a piano accompanist. As an experiment these past two months, I occasionally recorded myself during class (with permission from the instructor, of course). Then I edited the better exercises into separate audio tracks, mostly about 1-4 minutes. These piano improvisations feature melodies from classical music and pop culture. I'm fond of using video game music in particular. The goal is always to provide music that's conducive to good dance, and to serve the instructor's vision for each exercise. These recordings are available to subscribers.

Finally, I uploaded a jam session with local musician Jacob Dycus. I thought this brief collaboration was especially productive. Jacob is a guiarist and a drummer based in Round Rock. He's a member of a Christian metal band called Forgiven You. Jacob and I met as colleagues at Premier.

In December, I have a couple events. I'm playing with the Chisholm Trail Middle School choir for their holiday concert, and on a student recital at Armstrong Community Music School. I played for the Kids In Harmony piano studio recital on December 4. I thought that was a great recital, complete with awards to students for their accomplishments and Kids in Harmony T-shirts. If you want to support Brittney Benavidez and her piano studio, visit kidsinharmonytx.com. Later this month, I'll probably release the recording of my performance at that event.

On December 24, I'll be performing with Graham Yates at Wellspring United Methodist Church. We'll be playing four-hands Christmas music that he arranged and composed. I'll also be playing at the Unitarian Universalist again on December 19. And finally, I will continue to write music and produce musical audio. Most of that work isn't public yet. As projects are released, I will announce them.

Thanks for reading!

Best wishes,

Ben

Hello, Newgrounds! How are you? I have my Newgrounds social feed on my bookmarks bar and check it from time to time. I noticed @Waterflame continued to kick musical butt with a new album this month. And some of my favorites have continued to post beautiful art, such as this pixel art by @kldpxl and the science-fiction/fantasy images by @gugo78. Here's my monthly update for anyone who'd like to keep in touch with me and know what I'm up to. Thanks for your interest.

October saw two performance opportunities for me. The first was with a chamber opera called "Good Country", which was about a trans stagecoach driver during the Gold Rush. It was written by Cecilia Raker and composed by Keith Allegretti. Its recording and performance was sponsored by LOLA (Local Opera Local Artists), an organization that supports opera productions in the Austin area.

The second performance was a four-hands concert with pianist Graham Yates. We played music by Ravel, Prokofiev, and Bernstein. The event took place at Premier Music Academy, and it was livestreamed on Facebook.

Both concerts were satisfying in different ways. I enjoyed collaborating with Graham, who's a wonderful pianist and excellent musician. I was proud of the work we did on that concert as well as on our previous concert in September. And working on "Good Country" was satisfying because it supported Keith and his composition activities; I was honored to participate in his evocative, dark piece.

This month, I uploaded two new items to my website. The first was a track for the audio store called "Hallowed Meaning" (a pun on "Halloween"). This spooky music is meant to accompany a video or game. If you enjoy it and wish to use it in your original media, you can do so by subscribing to the website.

The second item was a short audiobook in which I re-wrote, narrated, and composed music for "The Emperor's New Clothes". It was an experiment. I've wanted to get into narration and telling stories for a long time. I especially enjoyed writing music for it, utilizing piano and violin. If you're interested in "The Emperor's New Clothes", you can hear a short sample on my website, and you can you access the full production by becoming a subscriber.

In November I'll be collaborating with flutist Sam Levreault in western Massachusetts. I've collaborated with Sam before--on my website there's a page of recordings we've made together--and I'm looking forward to making music and spending time up there. This is a beautiful time of year to be in New England and I love the Pioneer Valley.

Also in November I'll be hosting a concert of local music at Premier Music Academy, on Sunday November 21 at 2 pm. I and others will be playing solo piano music by young composers, composition students, and experienced local composers. If you have a solo piano piece you'd like me to play, feel free to reach out. I'll be accepting submissions as long as I have time in the program (and enough energy to learn them).

And that just about does it for this monthly update. It feels like things are getting into a groove...I've been here for five months, and it's starting to feel more like home. I'm still getting used to the area, though, learning my way around. I feel established now as a pianist and piano teacher, but I'm still trying to solidify my composition schedule. I'm looking for musical audio work. If you produce media and you'd like to hire me, please reach out. And I look forward to continuing my creative experiments every month. I'd like to do more audiobooks, for example.

Take care!

Hello, Newgrounds! I hope you are well. It was great to log in the other day and see a new Salad Fingers here. What a disturbing series. I'm glad David Firth is continuing the Salad Fingers character and continuing to create strangely compelling art.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In September, I continued to play music for ballet classes at Ballet Austin, improvising music for dance exercises; and I continued to teach piano lessons at Premier Music Academy and Armstrong Community Music School.

I also performed a concert with local pianist and composer Graham Yates. Graham was great to work with. We played four hands music by Stravinsky and Gershwin, as well as my arrangement of Willie Nelson's "On The Road Again". The video of this concert is available on my website. We'll be doing another concert this month on October 23 at 1pm (again at Premier Music Academy).

This past month I wrote a new track for my audio store, which is intended to be a musical resource for people making digital content. Music in the audio store is free for listening. But if you want to use it in your audio, video, or game you need to subscribe at $4 a month. I also experimented with filming my composition process, making a video that shows how I create music. If you're a subscriber, log in to the exclusive page and look under "work logs" to get a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of this newest track, "Forest Forever".

Finally, there is a new piece on the website archive for SATB choir and piano, called "Speed of Light". It's a half-spoken, half-sung piece lasting about six minutes. In "Speed of Light", I tried to depict some trippy scientific concepts surrounding how objects behave when they're moving extremely fast. To get a recording of it, I sang it myself, recording each of the parts ten times and layering them over each other.

In October I'll be working with local composer Keith Allegretti on his opera "Good Country", performing it at the Draylen Mason Music Studio on October 17 at 5 pm. I'm really looking forward to this. I'll be playing the piano as part of the ensemble and assisting the singers in rehearsals. If you're in the area, come on by to see some new music being performed. Keith is extremely talented. The opera features a trans character as its protagonist, which is not something that you see every day. This is a cool project and I'm excited to play the music.

As always, thank you for listening! Until next time.

New Content for Subscribers at BenTibbetts.net:

• Speed of Light (sheet music)
• Forest Forever (audio store)
• Forest Forever: Behind The Scenes (video)

Performances in October:

• October 17 - Good Country opera at the Draylen Mason Music Studio at 5 pm
• October 23 - Four Hands Piano Music concert with Graham Yates at Premier Music Academy at 1 pm

When I moved to the Austin area in June, I took a day job at a hotel to smooth over the transition. I think that was a good call. It made it easier to settle in, especially because I didn't have many connections to the area. But I gave my notice at the beginning of August, and left the job at the end of the month. I also moved from Round Rock to Austin.

Now that I've left the day job, I'm ramping up my music work. I'm now employed by Ballet Austin, where I'm playing the piano for classes. I improvise music to help students work through their dance exercises. I'm still teaching at Premier Music Academy in Round Rock, and I've begun teaching at the Armstrong Community Music School. I'm looking for more students at both schools.

I'm also producing musical audio for content creators. I finished a soundtrack for a short animation last month, and I'm beginning another one today. As potential clients reach out, this kind of work comes and goes. In general I want as many of these opportunities as possible. Making music for movies and games is what I dreamed of doing when I was a kid. It's creative and fulfilling, and it's related to storytelling, which is close to my heart. If you're watching this and you are a content creator--videos, podcasts, games, whatever--I'd like to help you tell your story. It's difficult to break into this industry, but I'm trying. I'm eager to improve and I'm committed to providing a professional service.

This past month, I updated a couple things for subscribers to my website. I spent a lot of time on a new track for the audio store, called "El Baile de los Muertos" ("the dance of the dead"). It's a creepy, exciting dance for violin, piano, bass, and drum set. I released sheet music for my piano four-hands arrangement of Willie Nelson's song "On The Road Again", and I re-released a short album of background solo piano music called "Reveries". A subscription to my website is $4 a month. Subscribers have access to a library of exclusive content including sheet music and royalty-free audio. This month, I'm thinking of making "work logs" too, little films in which I talk about writing music and show my work flow.

Later this month I'll be performing a piano four-hands concert with the local pianist Graham Yates, of the North Austin Piano Studio (www.northaustinpiano.com). If you're in town, please stop by. It's at Premier Music Academy in Round Rock, on September 25 at 2pm. It will be a small free concert in which we play some Gershwin and Stravinsky, as well as the just-released arrangement of "On The Road Again".

In September, I hope to get more students, maybe as many as twenty. I also hope to find more freelance work, and produce more content for the subscribers on my website.