Tonight the Middle Tennessee State University Wind Ensemble will be premiering my largest wind ensemble piece to date "From the Shaken Tower: Symphony for Percussion and Winds."  I'm deeply in debt to Dr. Reed Thomas who is one of the premiere advocates of new music for winds in the world and a truly outstanding musician and composer's dream to work with!

I'm pleased to announce that I have won two Global Music Awards for 2014.  "L'oiseau dans l'espace" and "Auto '66: Concerto for Clarinet" were both honored in the competitive general composition category.  The GMA's are open to musicians of all types and are dedicated to independent and entrepreneurial artists.  Previous winners include Gustavo Dudamel (music director, LA Phil.), Arthur Gottschalk (professor of composition, Rice University), and Austin Wintory (Grammy-nominated film/video game composer).

At long last, I have an excellent video recording of "Two-Lane Blacktop."  This was done by the Whitworth University Wind Symphony back in May under the baton of Richard Strauch and it is a magnificent performance!

The chamber version of Auto '66 is being performed today by both Dr. Julia Heinen (professor of clarinet, Cal. State Univ., Northridge) and by Technical Sgt. Ani Berberian and her colleagues in the U.S. Air Force Band in Washington, DC.  I'll be stuck in Colorado, but I'm sure both will be great performances!

I'm very excited for two performances at the Southwest CBDNA Regional Conference at the Univesity of Arkansas.  First up, the Truman State University Wind Symphony will perform Auto '66 with my friend and former classmate Jesse Krebs as soloist.  Then on Friday, the Arkansas State University Wind Ensemble under the direction of Dr. Timothy Oliver will open their program with Two-Lane Blacktop. Plus, I'll be participating in the composer panels on both Thursday and Friday.  Looking forward to meeting and working with some great colleagues both old and new!

My CBDNA four-part odyssey begins today!  Two performances of "Two-Lane Blacktop" by the Furman University Wind Ensemble and Luther College Concert Band are this afternoon in the Southern and North Central regional conferences respectively.  Next month, Western/Northwestern and Southwest regions!!

Dr. Julia Heinen and Prof. Dennis Johnson will be performing "Auto '66" for the Quad State Band Festival at Murray State University on Februay 21, 2014.  This should be a tremendous performance by some wonderful musicians!!

I'm excited to hear a performance of "Two-Lane Blacktop" by the Luther College Concert Band at the upcoming College Band Directors National Association Regional Conference at Ball State University. The concert takes place on Feb. 27 and I'll be participating in a composer's panel the next day with Pulitzer-Prize Winner Michael Colgrass.  Read more at the conference website here.

The intrepid duo STRIKE (Paul Vaillancourt, percussion and Jeff Meyer, piano) are once again on the road!  This time they'll be performing my work "Duo Toccata" at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.  I can't thank them enough for the many performances they've given of my music!

Dave Camwell of the Oasis Quartet has prepared a really nice video of the premiere of "Pictures of the Floating World" back in October.  I'm particularly fond of the last movement!