Blog
Orford Arts Centre
I am currently staying at Orford Arts Centre. The resident instructors are Yves Daoust, Jean Francois Laporte, Hans Tutschku, Gilles Gobeil, Laurie Freedman, A. Burton and John Oswald. This is going to be a busy two weeks. I’m very excited to be here. Workshops, master classes and private lessons are the order of the day. The food is pretty good too. I'm looking forward to getting out and checking mt. Orford. It's supposed to be beautiful.
Awards and Updates
This has been an exciting few weeks. I received a CIRMMIT award as well as the director’s prize for interdisciplinary projects. This past week I graduated from my masters after a difficult year of PhD overlap. Also, I found out about the SSHRC award after waiting almost a year! I am now the proud holder of the Canadian Social Sciences and Research Council’s Bombardier scholarship. Now I can stop worrying about funding and focus on my studies. I am very grateful for all these awards and all the people who helped me with the applications.
In the non academic world, I have finished the mixing on my 3rd album, which is exciting for me. Mastering starts soon. This summer is already packed with moving, commissions and residencies. More info posted soon.
Awards and Premieres
Last week was the premiere of Steampunk, which went well. That same night the conductor announced that I (and my group) have won a CIRMMT inter disciplinary research award, as well as the Director's Prize for research. It was definitely an interesting, but very public way to find out.
Also, I found the picture with John Adams when he workshopped a few works of mine last month.
Commissions
I've got some new commissions on the way. Groundswell, Griffon Brass
Band, and the McGill Wind Orchestra. This is going to be a busy year.
Also, my popular music side is working on a new album. More details on
this one later.
The Heavy Metal Project went off without a hitch. My system worked well
and I solved some technical problems and discovered some new ones to
work on. I'm not sure about the heavy metal aesthetic because I'm not
really a metal person so I think I'll stick within territory I'm
comfortable with.
My Students had their concert last Saturday. Everything was stable and
the concert was successful. The turn out was very good. I'm happy for
them, they worked hard and did a good job. For some reason I wasn't
worried at all. They did all the work setting things up and putting on
the show. All I did was make a silly poster. It was interesting to
hear the different directions the students took the ideas we discussed
in class.
I'm very lucky to have had the chance to teach this class. Now the class is going to be more about theory and the final exams.
Heavy Metal Project
This Friday a new piece of mine is going to be performed by the XEVE ensemble. My new work "Ferrofluid" combines different perspectives of heavy metal with jazz and new music idioms. It should be interesting. This will be the first time that I actually do something loud at McGill. Come and check it out. It is posted under the events section of this site.
-EB
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