Composers Beth Fleenor, Catherine Grealish, Stephen Fandrich, and yours truly have been paired with UMAMI Performance, Animate Objects Physical Theater, Khambatta Dance Company, and Karin Stevens Dance respectively.  We are now all tasked to create a new collaborative work scored for a 9-piece band and between 2-5 different dancers per pairing.

How do 2 people go about creating a concert piece? That’s what I was asking myself as I was walking into Velocity Dance to my first meeting with choreographer Karin Stevens. That’s what we will all find out in this process.  We decided before the meeting that we would start from scratch.  No preconceived notions.  We talked about communication and concepts and started figuring out the common language a musician and a dancer can speak.  Then improvisation.  We performed a series of games or improvisatory exercises to see what we can cooperatively generate and how we relate on a artistically visceral level.

Here is one of the exercises we came up with. Long Tones:

A “long tone” means a definite thing to a musician. A sustained note.  What does that mean to a dancer? Is it a static pose? A slowly moving one? A mood? A certain energy level?

This process of working closely with another discipline is unlike anything I have done before.  In the fledgling stages of our collaboration I discovered that Karin and I have much the same kind of energy and drive when it comes to our work.  And even this early on, one of my longtime suspicions turns out to be true: composition is composition is composition regardless of discipline.  I feel that in that place this composer and choreographer can easily connect.  With that then comes more insight into the other discipline as the work unfolds.  I’m super stoked.

Check back soon. Karin and I are meeting weekly and you to can share in this process as it unfolds.  I’ll be posting video, audio and thoughts as we go. Performance will be in April 2012.

The composition workshop will be held in partnership with Arts In Motion, a non-profit arts school that provides subsidized lessons in the arts for people that need them. I will facilitate a free, 4-session, non-genre specific, workshop that will give anyone the basic compositional tools needed to create or enhance a piece of music.  I am really stoked to get to work with a crop of budding composers! Hopefully I can get them started down a productive creative path.

The concert series will feature the best of the Tune A Day compositions arranged for a quartet.  I know Beth Fleenor will be playing clarinet and I will be playing piano.  Bass and drums are still being determined.  I want to assemble a band with a lot of personality and strong individual voices to play this music. We will perform at least 3 concerts.

I am so stoked.  Everything should get rolling in Nov. and I plan to chronicle the whole thing here on my blog.

In the meantime, here is tune #218 for this year. Another waltz. This originated as something I improvised while accompanying a ballet class.

Waltz in A minor (Aug. 11, 2011)

Requiem for a Dark Knight (June 15, 2011)

These were performed May 27, 2011 as part of Chamber Bomb, my first solo chamber music concert. Dates indicated below are composition dates.

Meditation 1 (Jan. 16, 2011)

Meditation 2 (Feb. 2, 2011)

Meditation 3 (Feb. 3, 2011)

Here is a piece that I wrote for 2 students that are sisters, Olivia and Claire.  Claire plays the flute as well, so I wrote them a piano and flute duet.  They are in 6th and 1st grade.  I am playing the piano here.  I will have a version with both sisters performing up in a couple of weeks after their recital.

Madrona Tree (May 25th, 2011)

Claire Canady – Flute

Michael Owcharuk – Piano

The orchestra had a couple of months to work on it.  I sat-in on a couple of rehearsals and we got to work on and talk about the piece. A valuable and rare opportunity for both composer and musician.  It was wonderful.

The performance was great.  The kids really dug in and played the music with purpose.  Afterwards they presented me with this card they made and signed:

Here is Lakeside Rhapsody performed by the Lakeside Middleschool Orchestra:

I am very grateful for and honored by this experience.  Many thanks to Erica, all the young musicians, and the Lakeside School.

February Grey (Feb. 25, 2011)

Beth Fleenor-clarinet and Michael Owcharuk-accordion

It’s Like That (Jan. 6 2011)

Recorded live at Egan’s Ballard Jam House 3/29/11.  My good friend Cody Rahn was in town and we decided to do a gig together. We are joined by Nate Omdal-bass and Beth Fleenor-clarinet.  These guys did an amazing job sight-reading this tune and making sound good on the fly.  Artists always working…

It’s Like That (PDF)

This piece is not a literal representation of the disasters.  It is a meditation on the tragedy and a commentary on the calm nature and collective effort put forth by Japan’s people.

Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Nuclear Meltdown (March 14, 2011)

Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Nuclear Meltdown (pdf)

Interim (Feb. 26, 2011)

Interim (PDF)