It’s 2012!

Happy New Year!  I know I am almost a month late, but between the holidays along with a million other things going on, I haven’t had much time to get on here and say hello if you know what I mean.  So far 2012 has not been too bad.  For starters, we haven’t had nearly as much snow as we did last year at this time (knock on wood!).  I think were were on our fourth or fifth snow storm by then.

It is so nice to see the green grass  in wintertime.  That is all I have to say.  I need color in my life and when there is a lot of snow on the ground, you don’t have that.  Speaking of color, January 6th marked the 140th year of Alexander Scriabin‘s birth.

Anyway, hopefully everyone is off to a great start.  I have some projects that I have been working on.  I don’t know if I had mentioned that I was selected to be the 2012 Commissioned Composer by the New Jersey Music Teachers Association (NJMTA), an affiliate of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA).  I was chosen months ago but I didn’t start announcing it to everyone until only about a month ago.  It is a very exciting honor.   Just to be chosen in general is such a huge deal for me.  I won’t tell you about gym class experiences back when I was grade school.  Let’s just say that when it came to be picked on teams, I was always the last one standing.  So yes, I am very excited and want to do a good job.

So what is my assignment exactly.  Well, I am to write 4 student pieces: 3 solo piano pieces (elementary, intermediate, advanced levels) and a piece for violin and piano (intermediate/advanced level).  My scores must be submitted by April 1st.  Then students will play the pieces in a competition that following November and I chose the winners who would then perform teacher conference two weeks later.  Then, I would go on to the nationals, meaning that all commissioned composers representing each state would compete to have their work chosen to be featured at the national conference.

So how am I doing on my assignment so far?  Well, I think I am on the right track.  It is a little nerve wracking, but I am doing the best I can so that is what counts:-).

Marvin and I are currently preparing to record a CD recoding of music for piano four hands .  We plan to start recording in the early summer.  It should be an interesting project and hopefully a little less stressful than when I made my first solo CD.  Let’s hope I don’t end up driving him nuts in the process though.  So far, so good!

I have other music things coming up that I will save for future posts.  Right now I am starting to get tired, so this will be continued.  Cheers!