This Is Summer?

Every year I summer comes around and basically I white knuckle it until October when work picks back up (ie students and gigs). This summer is no different in the student and paid gig arena, but in the composition department is has been a record breaking season for me - well as far as summer is concerned. This summer has been filled with commissions, performances of my works, and a competition win!

My summer kicked off in the win column when it was announced in June that I won The Flute View's Composition Competition. Winning a competition is rare, especially for me. Winning meant a little money to help us get through June (record breaking low since I started teaching - thanks students for getting awesome and going away to music camps). It also meant a lot of publicity as well as a premiere of the my winning composition Percolate for flute trio. I haven't heard the premiere yet, but I'm sure it was amazing since it was performed by Viviana Guzman, Andrea Fisher (Fluterscooter), and Alice K. Dade. Did I mention that there was all sorts of publicity tied to this? There was a Youtube interview and a podcast interview with The Flute View.

As if that wasn't enough, there were all sorts of festivals and music camps which included performances of my pieces. At Flutapalooza, I performed my piece Tamar for flute quartet with Perimeter Flutes. Dr. Mary Matthews and Matthew Angelo performed Chatter for two flutes at the Maryland Wind Festival. Then Dr. Elizabeth Robinson and Dr. Shelley Martinson took Railroad for flute choir to the music camps where they were faculty and performed them. Is this summer!?! I'll take it every year.

August is shaping up to be a good month as well thanks to the National Flute Association Convention. The Flute Choir of Atlanta directed by Kathy Farmer will premiere Summer Insomnia for flute choir that they had commissioned specifically for this performance. (Purchase availability coming soon!) I will join forces with my sister who is a physical therapist to give a workshop about pain prevention called "When Tooting Your Flute is a Pain in Your Neck". So I think this summer certainly makes up for last summer.

There's been bumps in the road - AC breaking in the car and the house, a flat tire, health junk. But we got through it. The hubs even quit smoking! How awesome is that!?!