Laurel Black Music

Ah, summer. For those of us in academia it means time to work for yourself , and that includes feeding the mind literary goodness.  For when you're in the mood for word food, here are some ideas.  Hyperlinks will take you to an excerpt on Google Books, if there is one. About Percussion The Percussionist's Art , by Steven Schick Sticking it Out , by Patti Niemi When the Drummers were Women , by Layne Redmond Drumming at the Edge of Magic , by Mickey Hart and Jay Stevens The Girl in the Back: A Female Drummer's Life with Bowie, Blondie, and the 70's Rock Scene , by Laura Davis-Chanin Keiko Abe: A Virtuosic Life , by Rebecca Kite About Artistry Creativity , by Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi Flow , by Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi The Artist's Way , by Julia Cameron Walking in this World , by Julia Cameron Finding Water , by Julia Cameron Leonardo's Brain , by Leonard Shlain About the Self Seven Habits of Highly Effective People , by Stephen Covey ...

Premiering Reef , by Jason Haney, at the Contemporary Music Festival This fall has been a completely new adventure.  Not necessarily the events within it, but managing them while going through the 2nd and 3rd trimesters of pregnancy.  In most cases, it posed no extra challenges, but in others...phew!...more on that in a different post!  L+M Duo In addition to my teaching at JMU, L+M Duo had an active start to its second season, featuring a premiere at JMU's Contemporary Music Festival (CMF), a new program at Virginia Tech University, and a residency at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where we workshopped and recorded 8 student compositions.   I also performed Christos Hatzis' Fertility Rites  at CMF, a piece I booked long before having any inclination I'd be almost 8 months pregnant during the performance.  At this time I could still maneuver behind a marimba pretty well! I also presented a masterclass at Virginia...

This last fall was one of busyness and development. There are lots of exciting things to announce, like: I'm now on faculty at James Madison University! I've established a new chamber group: L+M Duo with Chicago-based pianist Marianne Parker I was accepted to the PAS Health and Wellness committee The  @ percussion podcast is alive and well, recording episode 77 this week! JMU Being asked to join the faculty at JMU was certainly a highlight of the last few months. It's great to be at a university again, teaching with husband, and resume working with passionate, talented colleagues.  It has been great to teach percussion again, share my 'healthy playing' research findings, and occasionally exercise empathic skills in those "talking lessons" which more resemble life coachings than music lessons. I also taught a Percussion Methods class for the first time. I learned a lot: things I'd do differently, things I'd incorporate, things I...