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Greetings Current projects: [3-28-2012] St. Andrew continues to occupy most of my creative efforts, but I've been retraining myself to spend more of my time writing stuff. I've used a website called Broadjam for many years as an online music locker. Very handy. I'm particularly pleased with a song I wrote for Dwelling Place of Grand Rapids. They threw a party late last fall, with the GRSO, ballet and opera providing the entertainment and asked me to write something light and humorous. After a few months of drawing a blank, I finally realized the problem: there's nothing that funny about what they do (renovate old buildings for economy housing). So I decided on sentimental and the little ditty you will see in that list popped out in just a few hours. Everyone seemed happy with it, which made me happy. LISTEN [8-30-2010] I'm working on yet another sight-singing series, but this time I'll try marketing it myself since the publisher I've done work for in the past seems to have given up on publishing the last collection (huge!) which I submitted 9 years ago. It isn't interesting music, but it is very much needed since singers don't go through nearly as many notes as players do-- hence singers' notoriously weak sight-reading skills. Here's a link: Sight Singing Series - Vol. 1 SA. [8-30-2010] This year was a year for writing church music and getting it into a publisher's hands. World Library Publications handles all of these now, mainly because their staff is polite, helpful and quick to turn around decisions on submissions. [8-29-2009] I completed two underscores this summer, one for Rob Child, entitled "Silent Warrior" (LISTEN to closing track)and the other for Brian McDonnell as a chapter in PBS's "Secrets of the Dead" (LISTEN to first trailer underscore | LISTEN to longer trailer underscore). I sure do enjoy the work these two produce and I'm thankful they ask me to write music for them. [11-10-2008]Diane Penning and I release a new CD this week entitled "Sacred Space". Our CD debut concert takes place Nov. 16 at 3pm at St. Andrew Cathedral in Grand Rapids. The CD contains sacred solos from chant to spirituals that Diane and I have discovered over years of working together in the context of liturgy. Diane's intuition led her to a collection of pieces which are driven by the vocal part, text and melody, with accompaniment that is subtle and secondary. There are four arrangements of chants from "Missa Orbis Factor" for flute and piano, as well, but these, too, are driven by melody that derives much of its power from the unsung texts of the chants. The recording set up is a bit unusual-- we recorded in the Basilica of St. Adalbert with seven seconds of reverberation, so that the "sacred space" of the title would have a literal meaning as well as a spiritual one. I'll have a link to this CD soon, in case you'd like to have one. Individual tracks will be available on ITunes. [11-10-2008] Rob Child just finished two short ads for Waterford crystal. I created scores for them, one a classical-sounding waltz for a series of blooper clips and another of Italian wedding music. Fun! Hope there's more of that coming. Rob is so talented at this kind of thing. [11-10-2008]Brian McDonnell update: he has posted a new trailer at Planet Pictures. It is a bit longer in order to include more information that has been recently uncovered since the opening of Soviet archives. Fingers are still crossed that this project will be picked up soon! [1-25-2008]Brian McDonnell of TimeLine Productions hired me to do an underscore of a trailer for his upcoming production "Ostfront". Look for this documentary on the Eastern Front of WWII in the next year. The music is fun to write-- he wanted it to sound like Philip Glass, which is easy enough to do! The style really works for the trailer and should work similarly for the documentary itself. I'll post progress. [1-25-2008]I've been busy writing arrangements of public domain tunes and doing transcriptions of pop tunes for MusicNotes.com. It's light work, but fun and better for my brain than crossword puzzles! SILENT WINGS: Glider Pilots of WWII--this project is pretty much finished on my end and will be released in March. Promo material is at www.robchild.com. I believe this one will be shown on cable, so look for it on The History Channel and other similar channels with historical programming.

Recent Obsessions Work I have to count work as an obsession. I am working harder than ever in my new job at St. Andrew Cathedral in Grand Rapids and love every minute of it. There is an energy from the community (two were joined into one on July 1), full of wonderful people who like to sing anything I throw their way, my bosses are really amazing to work with, wonderful choirs everywhere you turn, the building is beautiful and absolutely loves music, the instruments are jaw-dropping (links on the website coming) and the support from the rector, the bishop and the diocesan director of music (Dennis Rybicki) is more than anyone could hope for. (whisper)I sometimes skip my day off just because.(/whisper) Reading I just finished "Pillars of Earth" for a second go-round. The sequel, "World without End" has recently been published and I needed a refresher. I almost forgot what a pleasure it is to read Ken Follett's books and I happily recommend any of them to someone who can recover from a late-into-the-night book obsession. Writing string quartet music keeps tugging at me. I've written a number of accompaniments to choral and solo pieces that involve strings and I've begun a short (I think) suite of pieces that seems to satisfy this urge a little more fully. The music will be pleasant, simple in some ways, useful for social occasions involving non-musicians (weddings, parties, other gatherings) and hopefully interesting to the players.