New news

I’m getting slow on the updates, here. Sorry ’bout that.

Obviously, T and I survived Arts Fest two weeks back. It was a success, a good time in general although rather stressful at the time (especially with both of us sick all week).  Of particular note was the use of the Mass I wrote last summer in the mid-week chapel service.  It was the first performance of any of my music here at Fuller, and was well received.  Now that things have quieted down, I’m thinking I might ask the choir about doing it once more for a recording.

We’re pretty much done with Art Concerns work now, just wrapping up the year. We threw a “thank you” party on Friday for all those who helped out over Arts Fest, which was also fun. We used to throw parties all the time back in Michigan, and entertaining in our home has got to be a favorite thing of ours. Now we’re thinking one more this summer before we leave for other (possibly greener) shores.

What of those other shores? Well, that’s the “news” part up there. Last week, on my birthday, I got the letter informing me that I have been accepted to Ball State University’s doctoral program in composition! To say that it was welcome news would be something of an understatement. We’ve been praying for some direction for next year for a while now, as we’re nearing the end of the program here at Fuller with no open options for what comes next… until now, when suddenly we do.

I’m still waiting to hear from one other program (Catholic University of America, in D.C.), and I’ll need to know about what aid is available at either one before I can think about registration. I’m also waiting on a teaching job to which I applied two weeks ago. Northwestern College (in northwest Iowa, not Chicago) has an opening in music theory, percussion, and music technology–all three of them things which I have taught in the past. I don’t know what the likelihood is of getting the job, since they would prefer a doctorate (which I don’t yet have), and my classroom teaching experience is mainly in the technology part above. I’ve taught all three in high school age music camps, and tutored theory college students while I was in grad school, but only for music tech have I taught in a college classroom setting. Sooooo… I don’t know. It would be fantastic for many reasons, but for now I’ll just have to wait and see.

Finally, without going into too much detail, my thesis is proceeding nicely.  As you may recall, I am setting the De Profundis (Psalm 130 in Latin) for an ensemble of vocal trio, wind trio, string trio, rock trio, and piano.  I tend to write very long text settings (long phrases, lots of repetition, and so on), so with the roughly 1/3 to 1/2 of the text I have set I am probably nearing the ten minute mark.  It will be a pretty good sized chunk of work, and I’m very pleased with how it is taking shape thus far.  Here’s hoping for a performance this summer after it’s done.

More later.