How many pieces of music do you know that incorporate the actual sound of the sun into the work? Amelia Chain’s composition “Solstice” uses real recordings of our sun in the work (both as the inspiration and as a musical element). Chain was inspired to create the piece after talking to her daughter about the […]
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Ludovico Einaudi. I’ve heard his name come up often over the last year or so, but for some reason I never listened to his music. That is until someone suggested I find something of his to play on the piano, and I was amazed. Einaudi creates his own unique, colorful world through his music, and […]
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Music is hard. Doing this for a career is hard. It’s not your usual 9-5 job that you can forget about at the end of the day. It’s something that permeates your life, the good and the bad, whether you want it to or not. It resonates with and pounds against your soul and it […]
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Welcome to the second installment of Music Favorites. Check out part 1 here! It’s so hard for me to pick a favorite piece of music. It’s like asking a mom to pick her favorite child or a movie fanatic to pick his favorite film. But I have compiled a list of my favorite works to share, […]
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Today I want to introduce you to Trevor Kowalski. A contemporary pianist-composer, Kowalski started young – piano lessons at 6 years old – but loved to create his own sounds rather than follow structured lessons. His newly released piano work June 5th (from his album Certain Paths) caught my attention: After listening to (and playing around with) some of his music, […]
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Some of you may know that I’m an active social media user. I firmly believe in putting myself out there to share my music and, in turn, supporting other artists. This is how I came across the music for today’s post. Today’s blog features a work by composer Alfonso Peduto, whom I recently discovered on Instagram. […]
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The other day I was introduced to this piece – 3 Lieder nach Trakl, No. 1, Ein Traum I (Three Songs to Words by Trakl, No. 1, Three Dreams) by Polish composer Paweł Szymański (b. 1954). That’s a mouthful, I know. The first version I heard was this one, for soprano and piano: The first thing that struck […]
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I did a thing, you guys. Here’s a video: I wrote the piece Nebulae for Oregon State University (OSU) conductor Dr. Chris Chapman and the OSU Chamber Winds Ensemble. We premiered it (I’m on the piano) on Friday, February 24th, 2017, in the Memorial Union lounge as part of the university’s Music á la Carte program. […]
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Today I’d like to share with you my “thinking music” playlist – music that has gotten me through hours of homework, studying, research, etc. It’s a mixture of film scores, ambient music, and more. Cascade by William Basinski: This is a wonderful example of simple electronic music that can be used for meditation. It’s quiet, understated, […]
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I found a new composer today named Marcos Balter. Born in 1974 in Brazil, he’s been a musician his whole life. Read more about him here. Balter’s compositional style is characteristic of 21st century composers in that it’s exploratory and unique. He makes new and colorful sounds through various extended techniques, unlikely instrumentation, and complex […]
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