After some misfires and head-scratches, the new semester has finally helped generate the inspiration for a new work, titled “The Coast.” This will be a short tone poem with full orchestra, which means full brass and woodwinds including atypical instruments like the contrabassoon and English horn, harp (I’m excited about writing for an orchestral harpist!), piano, several percussionists, the usual string sections, and more instruments to be named later. (As usual, I don’t have a full list yet — I won’t until my ideas are fully fleshed out!)

We all love beach destinations, but this is beyond that. As always, math, science, and conceptual ideas will figure into the piece’s form and content, though you should find lots that’s attractive to listen to without knowing all that. But those who are interested can, as always, follow along here!

This piece constitutes the first under the tutelage of my new composition instructor at the University of Kentucky, Juan Trigos. That relationship has also been slow to start, but I’m once again seeing the advantages of working with someone who has been writing (and consuming others’ writings) for a long time, and has a much more encyclopedic knowledge of the musical world in which my work resides.

The details of my new project can be read on that project’s home page. Click here to go there. (There isn’t much there, but you can definitely read a bit more about the concepts!)

Photo credits: Garret Nuzzo-Jones.