(I am so grateful to Erin (Tetting) Middleton, a former student of mine and now a music teacher for KUSD, who made this recording of Saturday night's performance.) It began sometime last summer when Polly Amborn, the choral director at Tremper High School (and my sister-in-law), shared some amazing news with me:
Life has had more than its share of sadness lately. I have found myself shaken by the death of a dear family friend back in Atlantic, Iowa - someone who at certain times in my life was almost like a second mom to me .... the tragic and untimely death of a young man in
Tuesday the 16th was my 56th birthday, and there were all kinds of things that made it a great day. One way in which it was a not-so-great day is that I kissed Kathy goodbye at 6:15 that morning and did not see her again until after midnight. That's not exactly my idea of
These are the final moments of "Black September." The words are by Matt Boresi. The music is by me (with certain passages based on the main theme from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.) The killing of the Israeli athletes and coaches has just occurred - and the narrator of the piece, Dietrich Genscher (Mike Anderle), reprises the
I thought I had said just about everything that should be said (at least for now) about "Black September" - until I realized that I had neglected to single out one guy who went way above and beyond the call of duty and ended up playing an enormously important role in the opera's success. I'm
Some scattered thoughts about this past weekend's Opera Workshop performances of Giacomo Puccini's tender-hearted "Suor Angelica" with the world premiere of "Black September," the one act opera I composed to a libretto by colleague Matt Boresi. MATT & ME ..... There is no question that Matt and I were really nervous as opening night
Something really magical can happen when a very young child takes the stage - particularly if it's just the right child, matched perfectly to just the right role. When I look back over my many years at the Racine Theater Guild, many of the moments most indelibly burned into my memory involve gifted children on
Well, opening night of "Black September" is upon us- and both librettist Matt Boresi and I are feeling guardedly confident that we have created something that will have some impact on the people who are kind enough to come and experience it for themselves. But there have been plenty of moments of doubt -
One inescapable headache associated with the J-Term Opera Workshop at Carthage is that the work of preparing the opera (or operas) occurs during J-Term - but the actual performances do not occur until the first weekend of second semester. That means that between the last day of class (typically the last Thursday in January)
