Highlights from January through April 2015

Seeing as I've almost entirely forgotten about this News section I added to the site (until now), my best bet is to play "catch-up" by summarizing several months, by way of a bullet-point list. Here are the highlights from 2015, up to this point (it's been a busy, satisfying year so far!)...

JANUARY

• I got to share the stage with Sheridan Zuther as part of UW-La Crosse's Vocal Jazz Festival. In addition to accompanying the Collegiates Vocal Jazz ensemble, I had the pleasure of backing up Sheridan in a smaller setting (quartet) for a few tunes as well.
• The "Dark La Crosse" history tour, for which I wrote/arranged/performed the music, returned to the stage for a re-mount. We performed an abbreviated version of the show as part of La Crosse's own "Old School Variety Show."
• After months of serving as Viterbo University's rehearsal pianist for "West Side Story," the show finally arrived towards the end of the month. I played two weekends of performances, as part of a 21-piece orchestra, which was seated on-stage rather than down in the orchestra pit. Lots of fun!

FEBRUARY

• "West Side Story" performances finished up the first weekend of February.
• Due to a hand injury suffered by our regular 3rd Relation Jazz Quartet bassist, we had to make arrangements for substitute bassists in order to keep up our weekly Tuesday night jazz performances. Fortunately we were able to connect and concertize with several of the area's best bassists throughout the month (and through March), who were gracious to join our musical team on short notice.
• I shared a Rodgers/Hammerstein ballad on Valentine's Day: here.

MARCH

• Towards the front end of the month, I played for a few days of UW-L and Viterbo's Music Department entrance auditions. These were sight-reading, on-the-fly sort of performances, which are great for testing the ability to quickly interpret a score and work efficiently/effectively with vocalists.
• Collaborated with UW-L's Language Arts department to organize and perform in "Tales and Tunes," a joint effort between 3rd Relation Jazz and several UW-L student and faculty poets. The night was part of UW-L's Creative Imperatives week.
• I played in the orchestra pit for a very special Fine Arts Gala, which celebrated Viterbo's 125th Anniversary. The program was recorded by Wisconsin Public Television, and will be broadcast later in the year.
• 3rd Relation hosted the first-ever "2's-day Tuesday," which was a twist on the traditional Tuesday night jazz event. Embracing the possibility of pairs, it featured a variety of musical duos. As it turned out, though, there were so many musicians present that the two-at-a-time plan quickly dissolved. Here's a little taste (technically it's a trio), bootleg-video style.

APRIL

• Lots of church-music writing and arranging was accomplished in time for Holy Week and Easter Sunday. After all was said and done, I had arranged music for string quartet, solo violin, and brass quintet.
• I accompanied a very talented vocalist mid-month at a UW-L Honors Recital.
• Feeling guilty that I hadn't blogged since West Side Story, I put together a video-centric blog post about playing bass lines on the piano (within a blues context). (Click here to read/watch!)
• With the month drawing to a close, I have been preparing music for end-of-semester music department jury accompanying and a few upcoming weddings. Speaking of which... I had better get back to work!