I’m really enjoying working from home again. During fall semester, I was usually gone 10-12 hours a day. It  was a great change of pace after working at home for several years, but it really started to wear on me towards the end. A couple of weeks at home will be nice. Hopefully, next semester will be a bit more balanced.

Current projects:

1. Copy work for William Hiil

2. Continued work on a wind ensemble work for Mentormeter Media

3. Started sketch work on something new – multimedia, electro-acoustic, vocals – more to come

The last two days have been the commencement ceremonies at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

On Thursday, the College of Music held their commencement for us. Daniel Kellogg “hooded” me as part of of the ceremony and said some very kind things about me. Some of the other doctoral graduates in the ceremony were María Fernanda Nieto-Pulido, who I wrote Fitful Slumbers for, and Tim Buckman, a fellow composer and guitarist.

On Friday, the University Commencement ceremony was held. I was hooded again by Associate Dean Steven Bruns and shook the hands of the president, the chancelor, and some of the regents of the University. Only two doctoral music students walked in the main ceremony. I almost didn’t, but I am glad that I did. My father came to the ceremony, and it was nice to have some family to share it with. The ceremony also gave me a real sense of completion to the process. I am officially a Doctor of Musical Arts.

After the University Commencement, I picked up my actual degree (they always give you a blank holder during the ceremony) at the Graduate School reception and went to my uncle’s restaurant to celebrate.

Wow! It has been a while. This semester has been a whirlwind. Finishing my dissertation, carrying 17 credit hours in a concurrent masters program, teaching at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and doing enough contract composition work to pay my bills was so overwhelming that I just had to put my head down and keep working.

An overview of the last few months:

1. Finished and defended my dissertation for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition. I will walk for the degree next week.

2. Completed 17 hours towards my second masters degree, a Master of Science in Recording Arts, at the University of Colorado, Denver

• This included a project in Audio for Post Production – a complete soundtrack for a three minute segment of film including all dialog and effects (backgrounds, foley, and cut FX).
• Recorded Sins of Babylon, a local metal band
• Recorded Nataniel Rateliff and the Wheel as part of their pre-production work for their upcoming Rounder release.
• Recorded New Ancient Astronauts
• Recorded the Metro State Orchestra  on several occasions and did a project comparing stereo microphone techniques for large ensemble
• Did my first remix project using Logic
• Master class on studio design with John Storyk
• Master class on virtual production with Sandy Hoover
• Master class on acoustics and concert hall design with Robert Mahoney

3. Continued contract composition work for Mentormeter Media, LLC.

• Boca-Motion for Alto Saxophone Wind Ensemble with J.S. Abramowitz
• WIP wind ensemble piece
• Arrangements of several tunes for a synagogue

4. Taught several composition majors at CU-Boulder

5. I will likely be working on an audio post project for UCD next semester as part of a scholarship opportunity.

6. Started the academic job search process again

7. Re-arranged the home studio. Since I am really only editing and mixing at home, I moved my control room back in the larger room. It is more comfortable and makes more sense for me now. I also bought a new Mac and upgraded to Pro Tool 8.

Gotta run. To be continued…