Friday, April 11, 2008

Fundraising now, touring later

Eigenvalues received a small grant from the Puffin Foundation to launch our new project. Now we're starting a new Commissioning Club campaign to raise money for the project. Click here to learn more.

In other news, I'll be on tour in May, playing guitar with Joe Lally. Here's the itinerary, for the latest version check his website.

May 17: Cincinnati, OH - Blue Rock Tavern w/Pomegranates

May 18: Chicago, IL - Schubas Tavern

May 19: Bloomington, IN - Art Hospital

May 20: Detroit, MI - Alvin's

May 21: Buffalo, NY - Soundlab (Big Orbit's Soundlab)

May 22: Ithaca, NY - No Radio Records

May 23: Cambridge, MA - Middle East ~upstairs~ w/ Glorytellers

May 24: Portland, ME - Space w/ Glorytellers

May 25: Providence, RI - The Livingroom w/ Glorytellers

May 26: New London, CT - The Oasis

May 27: New York, NY - Knitting Factory w/ Glorytellers

May 28: Washington, DC - Black Cat ~backstage~ w/ Glorytellers

May 29: Philadelphia, PA - The Barbary w/ Glorytellers

May 30: Baltimore, MD - Talking Head w/ Glorytellers

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Low End String Quartet: two new pieces

Yesterday we had our first rehearsal of the season for the Low End String Quartet.

Assuming we can solve the crazy logistical problems involved in scheduling additional rehearsals, we're going to get together a bit more regularly, learn several new pieces, play them out a few times, and we have a recording session booked for the beginning of September.

So far, I've completed two new pieces for the group and here are recordings of our first rehearsal. Hard to believe these folks are sight reading. It's been quite some time since I worked with players who could read this well. I just put paper in front of them and then out comes music. Crazy. No, seriously, they got these pieces immediately which really felt good. These performances aren't perfect (it was our first day with the new material after all), but I was really delighted with the results so far.

The pieces actually sound like I had imagined they would - which is also very satisfying.

And now the music:

Grinder
audio (mp3) | score (pdf)

Rondo
audio (mp3) | score (pdf)

(those are both working titles, hopefully they'll get cooler names in the future)
Andrea Vercoe: violin; Jodi Beder: cello; Daniel Barbiero: bass; and I'm playing the guitar.