If you’re looking for new music and you happen to be in San Francisco this weekend, be sure to swing by the FFC Special Event: Friction Quartet concert on Saturday! They’re playing myVariations for String Quartet, alongside new works by Joseph M. Colombo, Andrew Paul Jackson, and Mario Godoy.
For more info, check out the Fifth Floor Collective’s website.
Just a brief note: our first child, a boy, entered the world on August 22, 2013. Jude Anthony Greene is a beautiful, vivacious little miracle, and I am constantly in awe of him.
I’ve never been so proud. I’ve never been so astounded by the depths of my wife‘s strength. And I’ve never been so inspired.
Welcome, my son. I can’t wait to see where life takes you.
I’m putting the finishing touches on my final notes to the recording engineer from last summer’s WGBH Tortoise and the Hare sessions in Boston! Look for this in CD/digital form in a few months—details will, of course, be posted here.
Boston Musica Viva, Marimba Magic, and Steve Aveson did a truly incredible job with my music and Mr. Pickett’s libretto. We can’t wait to share the finished product with all of you.
The premiere of Steel Symphony (July 2, 2013) by Christopher Houlihan in Hartford was truly one of the great nights of my musical life. It simply couldn’t have gone better—it was phenomenally well-attended, Chris played superbly, and the whole program really came together beautifully.
Steel Symphony, which was commissioned for this performance by Trinity College Chapel Music, was also one of the first pieces to be performed on Trinity College’s new four-manual Austin console. It proved itself very much up to the challenge.
I’ve posted some pictures below (thanks to Mike Raciti and Trinity College Communications for taking them!). You can watch a video of the third movement here, and I’ve added audio to my Music page. Here are quick links to the audio files: I. Putto 4 over 4 | II. Lincoln | III. Armour Boys. Chris and I were interviewed by Bob Parzych on WRTC’s Kitchen Sink the day before the performance, as well—you can check that out here, if you’re interested.
I’m now officially on hiatus, for at least a few months, as my wife and I eagerly await the birth of our baby boy! Jude is due August 12, and Steel Symphony was dedicated to him. I sincerely can’t wait to show it to him someday.
L to R: John Rose, Director of Trinity College Chapel Music (and a great teacher and friend to Chris and I); Charles Dodsley Walker ’40, renowned organist and conductor; Christopher Houlihan ’09, a great friend and collaborator (and a true organ phenom); me (’07, for the record); and James F. Jones, Jr., the president of Trinity College and a hugely positive force in the musical life at Trinity.
There were close to 1,000 people in attendance.
The new console was made even more brilliant with some spiffy new lighting.
The line stretched well down the Upper Long Walk.
That’s me, cloaked in darkness, speaking with Jimmy Jones after the concert. He’s just a wonderful man, and a great advocate for many of us musical alums.
Standing ovation!
Here are four examples, in one iPhone photo, of why I love this city and its august architectural/engineering lineages. On the left is the North Bank Bridge, a 700-foot-long footbridge that was opened last year to much fanfare. It connects Cambridge to Charlestown, and cuts the walk time between the two down from thirty minutes to five. Its sinewy, sinusoidal look isn’t just for aesthetics, though I’d still think it was a marvelous structure if that were the case (it’s beautiful enough that it’d be justified). The “sinusoidal” effect is actually from the trusses weaving below the bridge to above it and below again--- they dip below to create more space between the highway overpasses above them, then swing above to make more room for the commuter rail tracks passing beneath.
In the far background, of course, is the Zakim Bridge (or the “Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge,” if you want to get all fancy). From an engineering standpoint, it’s astounding: it’s the widest cable-stayed bridge on the planet (the bridge deck is 183 feet across, carrying 10 lanes), and it was the first cable-stayed bridge with an asymmetrical deck design. The pylons echo the nearby Bunker Hill Monument, and the white cables streaming down to the deck bring to mind the rigging of the USS Constitution, which is just down the harbor a bit.
A little closer (in front of the Zakim Bridge, middleground) is the Leverett Circle Connector Bridge. It might not look like all that much, but it’s the largest steel box girder bridge in the United States. It connects to I-93 in Somerville in the north, and to Storrow Drive and Leverett Circle (two high-volume Boston spots) in the south.
Finally, in the near-right, is the Boston & Maine Charles River Bridge. Built in 1931, this is one of the only functioning rolling-bascule bridges in the country, and it still works perfectly. All of the North Station Commuter Rail lines—almost 30,000 people every day—pass over this bridge, and it’s never failed. It’s beautiful, functional, and incredibly simple—the whole thing just rotates on a counterweight.
