Choral music everywhere

As I write this, the first of two new choral projects is being premiered half way around the world, in the beautiful city of Reykjavik.  The piece was written for LA's own new music collective wild Up, and their collaboration with Graduale Nobili - a wonderful Icelandic women's choir, known internationally for their collaborations with Bjork.  These two fine ensembles are putting on a joint concert tonight, featuring premieres from six Los Angeles-based composers.  (My piece is called Love Is/Not.) As a sort of "lead vocal" in the piece, I've written a counter-tenor solo to be performed by Jodie Landau, who spearheaded the entire project (and to whom Love Is/Not is dedicated).  It is an absolute honor to have written for, and be collaborating with, these fantastic artists and ensembles.

Why am I not in Reykjavik, enjoying tonight's premiere performance?  Another couple of projects keep me here in LA, one of which I'm very happy to just now be able to announce: my new Los Angeles Master Chorale collaboration The Passion of Anne Frank, as part of their Oratorio project partnership, and going along with their Passion programming theme for the 2014-15 season.

For this piece, I'll be collaborating with the wonderful lyricist Doug Cooney, performer and project coordinator Alice Murray, and 115 of the finest student collaborators we could ask for at Los Angeles' Academy for the Performing Arts downtown.  We will be coaching them in principles of composition, and they will create words and melodies under our guidance, which will be fleshed out into a full multi-movement work which they will then perform, alongside the Los Angeles Master Chorale chamber singers.

Amazingly, and somewhat dauntingly, this entire project will be completed by around Thanksgiving, with the premiere in early February of next year.  It's in situations like this where my film composing background comes in very handy - sometimes big projects are well served by short timelines and hard deadlines.  I relish the challenge.  And now, back to it!