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!