Knight Foundation finalists

I am very grateful to the Knight Foundation for choosing me as a finalist in the Knight Arts Challenge Detroit 2013. I am also grateful to everyone who has sent words of encouragement.

Other finalists include the Michigan Arab Orchestra, the Michigan Philharmonic and the Motor City Brass Band, to name just a few.

There are still a few important steps before the final decisions are made. I have to submit a longer, more detailed proposal about my idea, and fill out a budget spreadsheet (as a matter of fact, I need to get back to work on those). I will let you know more about the people's choice voting later on.

The Philip Glass Timpani Concerto

My new favorite piece of music is the Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra by Philip Glass. I have complained in the past about the preconceptions and misconceptions that keep people from enjoying music they would like very much if only they gave it a chance. Truth is, I have my own preconceptions and misconceptions. Some of them being about Philip Glass. Hypnotic at best, tiresome at worst.

And then I finally decided to give the Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra a chance. I was amazed and impressed by what I heard. This is music of ferocious energy and vitality. "Minimalist" doesn't quite seem an appropriate word to use to describe this piece, but stylistically it is undeniably a work by Philip Glass.

Also, I am reminded of David Diamond another composer I had preconceptions about. In fact, there is a little bit of a connection between Diamond's Symphony No. 1 and the Glass Concerto: they both include tubular bells in the very first measure. Perhaps there is an overture also having this characteristic; the three pieces would make an excellent concert.

The likelier proportion of Kickstarter in funding a concert

I am hardly the first to say that almost all classical music projects on Kickstarter fail. You can be a renowned musician in a world-class orchestra, your classical Kickstarter project will probably fail (I've seen that happen, it's very scary and discouraging). There is this misconception going around that Kickstarter is a miracle cure for your arts funding problems, that you just present your idea and strangers give you enough money to do it.

If you want to put on an orchestral concert and get all of your funding through Kickstarter, well, all I can say is good luck, don't come crying to me when it doesn't happen. I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm saying it's highly unlikely. I learned the hard way a couple of years ago.

What about something smaller, like a string quartet concert? It's still very difficult. If I get to put on a string quartet concert this year (and I really, fondly hope that I can), this is quite likely where the funds will come from:

• 90% wages from a day job that has nothing to do with music
• 8% from a grant from an arts organization
• 1.9% from my classical music eBook earnings
• 0.1% from different crowd-funding websites, including Kickstarter

Something I was only vaguely aware of until yesterday when a friend posted about it on Facebook: Kickstarter projects can be rejected with no explanation whatsoever given. That hasn't happened to me, but if it does, maybe it would bother me. I'll just have to remember that getting my check docked at my day job, having my hours cut, getting laid off, etc., will have a much, much greater impact on funding my concerts than anything that happens on Kickstarter.

104 Great Symphonies book is behind schedule

Last year I expressed my desire to publish my eBook with working title 104 Great Symphonies You Have Never Heard Before by March. March is here and the book is not ready. I'm shooting for May now.

Ukulele Concerto in A minor: 2/3 of the way there

I am 2/3 of the way done with the first draft of my Ukulele Concerto in A minor. Since this Concerto is not actually meant for myself (I received a suggestion of consulting a certain famous player) I have not actually played any of it on my own ukulele. I have to be honest and admit that my original plan of writing it for myself was kind of limiting what I could write, because I am not a virtuoso on the instrument (or any instrument, for that matter).

There will be more details later on.

Upcoming book on obscure Symphonies

I am working on a new eBook with working title 104 Great Symphonies You Have Never Heard Before. It is inevitable that some great works will be overlooked because there surely are great Symphonies which I have yet to hear.

But to minimize that inevitability, I have turned to Jim Moskowitz for help. Jim runs the Unknown Composers Page; he really knows the unknowns. He's given me enough suggestions for me to be hunting and listening for years. But I would like to put out the book by March 2013, so I'll just for now focus on a few of his suggestions: Kaljo Raid, Werner Josten, Ellen Taafe Zwilich, a couple others.

Premieres: you've got to cut a lot of slack

The recent experience with "Kramer" has caused me to decide that I should move away from promoting living composers other than myself. Theoretically, living composers should support each other. Btu in practice, there are some very annoying reactions that just don't make it worthwhile.

One of those reactions: "The performers just butchered my music." Given that so many other performers are beating down your door begging to play your music—wait, what's that? You mean there aren't any performers beating down your door begging to play your music? These performers could have made easier money these last few nights giving lessons, but instead they chose to rehearse your music and play it in public. Not that you made any effort to make your piece playable, carefully deciding on page turns, enharmonic spellings, cues, rehearsal letters and other niceties of that sort.

Look at the first recording of Górecki's Second Symphony, the one conducted by Tamas Pal on some label you never heard of before. It just simply doesn't have the same polish and impact as the newer recording conducted by Antoni Wit on Naxos. And newsflash: Dawn Upshaw with David Zinman was not the first to record Górecki's now popular Third Symphony (though admittedly the Third presents the performers with fewer challenges than the Second).

Another thing that gets me: composers worried about someone stealing their music. Relax. In fact, chillax. You can safely leave the score to your avant-garde opus magnum on the table in some public place and no one will steal it. They might even find some way to return it to you. To get someone to steal an avant-garde composition, you'd probably have to pay the thief to do it.

Compared to complaints about how awful the performers were, just plain silent ingratitude would be very good. I'm not saying that no concert of mine will never again have living composer other than myself on the programme. It's just that I will be way more selective, considering not only the quality of their work, but also their personalities.