so the way I eventually did get exposed to band firsthand is I was composing
residence with a youth orchestra in Minneapolis one year and I was there for
four weeks one week at a time over the course of the concert season my final
week of my residency happened to be right after the weekend that was
including the CB DNA National Convention the college band director National
Association convention was happening in Minneapolis up until the day I had to go
to Minneapolis anyway for the Youth Orchestra so I arranged my flight to get
there three days early and go to CB DNA and just see what that world was and
experienced firsthand what first-rate college groups could do and I was
completely blown away I heard amazing amazing ensembles USC
was there Bob Reynolds was conducting I think he conducted the premiere of his
transcription of the Lorenson ommaya mysterium so I heard the world premiere
of that or least one of the very first performances of it I heard so much great
music played so well let's do that I brought a bunch of CDs and I handed
out a bunch of CDs and within a week I got a phone call from the director bands
at Emory University at the time Scott Stewart and he said you have this
orchestra piece called red line tango that should be a band piece and I was
like oh mr. Stewart it really should not it is far too difficult for your bands I
don't think I quite said that but that's what I was thinking and I'm sure I was
super super snotty and arrogant and dumb honestly because I still wasn't sure
that the music I was writing with all those mixed meters if can people count
that I have no idea it's not in 4/4 or B flat so it's an each the opposite of B
flat so I don't even know if that's even playable and he said no I think that's a
band piece I think red line tango is a band piece I said I'm not sure and he
said I have this much money to make that a band piece I said it is a band piece
so I did the band version and it was amazing it just it premiered at a
regional cbda the southern division and it just blew
up from like that one performance and in less than a year I quit my day job that
I was doing in New York and was just writing music full-time and traveling
and hearing great rehearsals and performances and like actually finally a
composer from one you know full-time I mean I was a composer but I wasn't
making a living but from one band piece I was able to suddenly make a living and
it was great like just to have those kinds of performances and experiences
and traveling and you know it's incredibly lovely and a wonderful life
that it's stable to be because of band music some people have told me like
they're like you don't have to go to those things anymore you don't have to
keep going to the Midwest or whatever I feel like I do also I love it I love the
energy of being around
so the Midwest rules are an interesting thing this is something I ran into being
self published you know the convention was originally started basically by
music publishers so there are rules that go into how the programming has to
happen to be included on a program at Midwest and there are rules that say
that if you have if you're the publisher of the piece which in this case is just
me if you have one or two pieces played you have to buy an ad in the program and
if you have more than two pieces played you have to buy a booth which is quite
expensive also not just the expensive but it's it's incredibly time-consuming
it's a bit burdensome I think to manage a booth so a couple years ago two
Midwest's ago I had the fortunate to have three pieces happen at Midwest that
year and I didn't want to tell any school no but that meant now the rules
say I have to have a I have to exhibit and I didn't want to do that I think I
can make better use of my time by going to concerts and go into rehearsals and
go into clinics and walk in the floor and meeting people but if you have a
booth it has to be staffed and I wasn't going to hire people to staff the booth
and I didn't want to deal with shipping boxes of my music there to display so I
decided to donate the booth because I was just gonna try to leave the thing
empty but if someone gives you something that you don't want or need
you don't necessarily throw it away you give it to someone who needs it and that
people who need it the most right now I find our composers who are from
underrepresented groups so I donated the booth the past two years to composers
who are women identify as women or composers or people of color and it's
been a really amazing experience and then you go to dinner as a group and
it's been really really fun and gives those composers if they can get
themselves Chicago I will give them free exhibit space at the booth to sit there
for a couple hours each day talk about their music promote their music as if
they were you know it just as a standard exhibitor at the booth without having to
foot the bill of renting the booths and furnishing the booth which is a whole
other thing it turns out so it everybody works out great for everyone I can have
the three performances and I have this booth that I have to have anyway and I
give it to people who
you