Month: March 2015

PRESS PLAY – Nocturne, Erik Nielsen

Enjoy the first edition of PRESS PLAY!

This piece was premiered o 12/19/09 at the Elley Long Music Center, in a concert sponsored and performed by the Northeast New Music Collective. This concert was dedicated to the music of Erik Nielsen, and featured two new premieres.

I made a pretty quick recording of this last week, in about an hour and half. The performance in 2009 had a recording made of it by Erik. I’ll post it at some point. The main differences between the two are, that my 2015 recording was about 2.5 minutes longer than the 2009 one. There are other differences of course between the two, and neither is a perfect recording, and I like them both for different reasons. My bass clarinet has a crack in the lower joint, right through a tone hole, hence the slight squeak on a few notes. I really enjoyed working up this piece again, it came right back to me.

Enjoy!

PRESS PLAY

PRESS PLAY! This monthly challenge will feature 1-3 new clarinet works, along with a new recording and a comentary about my experiences with working on the piece. My goal is two fold – 1)to bring awareness to new music for the clarinet, featuring well known and up and coming composers. 2)to constantly challenge myself to keep pushing myself to learn new music, and to challenge myself as a performer. My first feature is a solo bass clarinet piece by VT composer Erik Nielsen, and I’ll be posting a recording of a piece he wrote for me in 2009. Check back within the next few days to hear his solo bass clarinet piece, Nocturne.