Since I'm officially working on my first official set of compositions of a full scale (meaning original compositions for a large group, not large scale as in full orchestra), and because they need to be recorded (being used for ballet in an original play), I've started putting together an ensemble to rehearse and record them.
Many people signed on so far to play for me are my friends and Brothers, all of which are still in college, many music majors, and most have a year or two left at least before graduation. I've decided to keep this group together in some form, replacing member as need be and altering instrumentation as composition sees fit. The group Steve Reich and Musicians, the "new music ensemble" that regularly performs and records the music of composer Steve Reich, is my biggest influence here, in case you hadn't guessed.
The first incarnation of this group is a small chamber orchestra, and so far my biggest worries (horns and flute/piccolo) are taken care of, and now I just need to fill out the strings and find a harpist. Or, I may drop the harp from the score. Or, I may play the harp part myself. The fact that I could record myself playing each instrument on separate tracks and combine them later on has crossed my mind, but screw that. Besides, I sold my flute, had to return my horn, and all of that percussion would be hard to sneak into my house.
Before I forget to mention, I'm also using this as a vehicle for my conducting, something I've wanted to make a bigger focus in my life for quite some time. I'm serving as the ensembles musical director, rather than a performer. There will be times that I will play, either out of necessity, or should I write a concerto, such as for saxophone, that I want to perform myself. We'll see.
I realize I've done a decent job of keeping myself from naming names and such in this blog, and that's partly because I'm new to this world and I don't want to get ahead of myself, but I will be posting a roster soon, and an instrumentation will be coming first in the coming days.
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