This is a video @tenebraechoir made of their recent performance of my composition When David Heard. In my very humble opinion Tenebrae is one of the world’s best choirs — extraordinary singing and music making. If you are a composer, having your music brought to life with this level of sensitivity and musical intelligence is a dream come true.
One of the consequences of all these meter changes in the second half of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring is hyper-focus. Every time I’ve seen this performed there is a palpable escalation of concentration on stage — you can actually feel the players leaning forward and digging in. I’ve always wondered if Stravinsky wrote it that way knowing that it not only sounded great, but it would also unite the orchestra by giving them an outrageous mountain they all had to climb together. As a side note, I’ve never once seen a conductor use a score to conduct this; it’s always from memory. I think if you don’t have this music in your body at a cellular level you’re not going to be able to lead the orchestra up the mountain.
This is some of the best circular breathing I’ve ever seen. Great performance by @sergei.nakariakov and a terrific piece by Jorg Widmann.
So much to absorb here, but the main thing I am struck by is how much imagination is required from both of them. This was in the days before playback monitors, time code, and sample libraries, so the best John Williams can do is try to watch the tiny Moviola screen and find the music that will work best at each moment. And Steven Spielberg has to do his best to imagine the lush, gorgeous orchestration that he won’t be able to hear until they record it with an actual orchestra. The fact that they were able to make something as magical as E.T. using this process speaks volumes about the absolute mastery of their respective crafts and their unshakable trust in each other.
I had the honor of conducting all the choir parts for @johnj_powell ‘s gorgeous score to How to Train Your Dragon 3. It was with my choir (The Eric Whitacre Singers) in Abbey Road — an absolute dream. One thing I vividly remember is that I had a small monitor on my podium, showing the film as I conducted. But the choir couldn’t see what I was seeing, and I couldn’t even tell them because of an NDA I had signed. So there were moments where I was laughing, or tearing up, and I could only wait until the end of the day to tell John privately how beautiful and moving it all was.
One of the great musical moments of my life. The @royalphilorchestra brought this piece to life with such power and elegance. And I can’t overstate how loud this moment is — just an exquisite wall of sound.
When we recorded my first Spitfire sample library we warmed up with a piece I wrote called Sleep, singing only vowels.
Silence. Thinking a lot about silence after I posted that beautiful performance of When David Heard by @tenebraechoir. When David Heard is filled with long, deep silences. Some of them are gripping, some of them are devastating, some of them are hollow. But none of them are ‘nothing’. Each island of silence should be as alive and electric as the singing.
Concert tonight! Such beautiful rehearsals and time spent with the Youth Choral Academy at the @oregonbachfestival. Tonight we put it all together. Here we are rehearsing my work A Boy and a Girl, a piece they started learning just four days ago. (!) Huge thanks to Dr. Anton Armstrong, one of my mentors and heroes, for inviting me to work with these fantastic young singers.
Tonight in Eugene we will perform Sing Gently as an encore after The Sacred Veil. What a week it has been making music with these exceptional musicians: The Oregon Bach Festival Chorus; Andrew Campbell, piano; and Marilyn de Oliveira, cello.
These are my “Emotional Architecture” drawings I made for “A Boy and a Girl”. I do drawings like this for most of my pieces, trying to build the inherent emotional journey before I write the music.
These are my “Emotional Architecture” drawings I made for “A Boy and a Girl”. I do drawings like this for most of my pieces, trying to build the inherent emotional journey before I write the music.
Beautiful workshop last night with the University of Oregon Chamber Choir and their director Maestra Sharon Paul. Bravo to these terrific young musicians!
A few years ago @laurence_servaes and I took care of this incredibly sweet dog named Carson. Only later did we learn he’s a famous dog, lots of TV and movies. (A friend of ours from Europe said her kids recognized him from pictures we were sending, saying, “That’s Squishy Paws!”). Carson, we miss you!
Humbled and grateful. Thank you, each and every one of you. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Thank you @armsymphony and Maestro @sergeysmbatyan for this gorgeous performance. Looking forward to hearing you live in Los Angeles this Saturday night!
This morning I’m writing a grand moment from Eternity in an Hour.
A nighttime journey with fractured dream voices. This movement will be called “Hold Infinity”.
For this movement in Eternity in an Hour I’m using Fall, a hauntingly beautiful Norns script by @_ambalek. It creates delicate, random notes within a chosen scale, and is inspired by leaves falling from a tree. You can see it working on the Monome Grid closest to me. When a ‘leaf’ reaches the ‘ground’ (the bottom of the grid) a new note is sounded. So for the live performance I’ll be conducting the choir and strings — and triggering those samples — based on the random timing of the leaves falling. In this way, the performance becomes a gentle dance between the musicians and the machines.
With @laurence_servaes, the most beautiful girl in the world. (She thought I was taking a picture).
From a conversation I had with the brilliant @jacobcollier.
Oregon! I’ll be at the Oregon Bach Festival this week: Saturday July 6: A public talk, big sing (any voice type can join us) and a meet and greet. All open to the public. Tuesday, July 9th: I’ll conduct several of my pieces with the Youth Choral Academy Choir Friday, July 12th: The Sacred Veil and Sing Gently with the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus. All info and tickets at oregonbachfestival.org. See you soon!
The Redwood National Forest, Sunday afternoon.
175 days until Christmas! Every year now, I get to look forward to December. Not only is it filled with Bach, Händel, Ella and Bing, but since 2018 it’s also filled with performances of The Gift Of The Magi. My husband’s father read his family this book every Christmas. Eric always knew he’d set the story to music one day. In 2018 he sat down and wrote some killer lyrics (the man’s a poet!!!) for his most wonderful opera The Gift Of The Magi. This opera feels like Christmas, feels like home. So far we’ve performed it with piano. The next seasons we’ll be performing the orchestral version. Can’t wait for you all to hear/see it, and once you do, you will wanna perform it too, it’s so good! Roles: Della (high soprano) Jim (baritone) Shiela (belt soprano) Misses Sinclair (soprano) Shopkeeper (baritone) Choir (SATB) #christmas #opera #classicalmusic #soprano #choir
