notes from the kelp

…click to listen:

…about the music

Music for insects on the go.

Since returning from my most recent trip to New York, I’ve had a productive month of composing and living on this gorgeous floating rock that holds many more animals than people. I’ve been mesmerized watching spring become a verb through the actions of each tree, bird, and newborn lamb or foal surrounding me, and that vision inspired my muses as I wrote the electroacoustic band piece for which I had my first, really fun rehearsal today. I can’t wait to see these kids again; they’re a delight. And even more of a delight than they were just yesterday before they heard the piece, since they like the music I wrote them and called it “awesome.” High, high praise from a 13 year old, and I’m grateful.

In the early morning, I leave once again for a place that holds many more people than animals. And, far more composers than here, too: southern California. I’ve got a very full, word-and-idea-and composer-intensive week ahead, beginning with two ASCAP Composer Career Workshops: one in San Diego, and the next in Hollywood. I’ll be joined by three distinguished colleagues, and we’ll share whatever we’ve learned about this wacky music life with our peers, who, just like us, are trying to learn more about this wacky music life. Then I’ll speak on a panel for the ASCAP I Create Music EXPO about this wacky music life and lot of ways to make it even more rewarding if you think outside the taco shell. Somewhere in there I’ll do a few mentoring sessions at the EXPO with composers seeking further info about this wacky music life (hey, ya want wacky, I’m your gal), and finally, because apparently I just will not have talked enough, I’ll moderate a Los Angeles Composers Salon, featuring even more composers, most if not all of whom are a tad wacky.

This will be “old home week” for me, as I’m immersed in a happy world of colleagues who are every bit as passionate about what they do as I am. Many of them became good friends during the years that L.A., not some funny little island, was my address. While I don’t miss much about that city in terms of daily life, I always love being amidst large groups of my amiable composer pals. They are every bit as inspiring as the springtime. And, nearly as wacky as I. Thank goodness.