Some Plans Change. This Is Good.

That's true, right there. Usually when something falls through, it's only to make way for something better. (That's the way God works in my life.)

Well, to make a long story short, both of my exciting summer projects fell through. Andrew, the flautist commissioning the concerto for March, is not going to be the artist in residence with SEISO. And I will not be going up to Massachusetts in August for FredBrass. I will be going to Orlando in November for the National Young Composers Challenge, which I have won for the fourth year in a row. Still, this has left my summer relatively free of work. But I have been given a new project. One more exciting than both of these put together.

I have agreed to be the Composer in Residence with the Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra for their 2016-17 season.

I will be flying out to Iowa in March for two weeks of outreach in schools, lectures, and working with the orchestra, and SEISO will premiere a new work for full orchestra in their Spring concerts to wrap up the residency. This opportunity combines all that I love about music and hope to do full-time in the future: composition, education, outreach, and collaboration. I am incredibly humbled and thankful for this chance to do what I love.

So, over the next months, you, my faithful readers, will get to follow along as I compose a new 20-30 minute piece for full orchestra. I am still figuring out exactly how this will work, but hopefully this will be an awesome experience for you as well as for me, as I try to give you a glimpse into the creative processes that are at work behind the scenes in the composition of a piece.

​Now, off to composing!