Laurel Black Music

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...

As collaborative piano takes up nearly 50% of my music-making during the academic year, I've started to keep lists...looooong lists... of everything I learn each semester. It's mostly so I can feel a sense of accomplishment, but it's also smart to keep a running rep list, no matter what it's for. If you're not already keeping track of rep you learn - for whatever instrumentation - I'd go ahead and start! Performed in Recital Flute Chaminade, Concertino Clarke,  Hypnosis Mouquet,  Pan et les Oiseaux Ganne, Andante and Scherzo Bohm, Fantasy, Op. 21 Schumann,  Three Romances Griffes,  Poem Reinecke, Ballade Clarinet Cahuzac, Cantilene Hindemith, Sonate Rabud, Solo de Concours Saint-Saëns, Sonata Bassi, Fantasia from I puritani Weber, Concertino in E-flat Major, Op. 26 Violin Bartok, Romanian Folk Dances Khachaturian, Concerto , II.  Percussion Sejourne, Concerto for Marimba and Strings Rosauro, Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra Gre...

Though it may seem that this post is about testing you on your professional music acronyms, I promise that's not the case.  Laurel's been a busy bee since school let out in early May. New Music Gathering 2017 New Music Gathering (NMG) is a pretty cool 3-day conference for anyone who participates in new music.  From May 11-13 we all gathered at Bowling Green State University to talk about, listen to, and dream about new projects together.  You can view this year's lecture, presentation, panel, and recital schedule here .  It was really cool - and not just because Steven Schick was the keynote speaker and featured guest artist.  L+M Duo performed during a concert on Saturday afternoon called Grab Bag of Awesome, featuring us as well as other chamber groups performing all kinds of music.  We played our first-ever commission, Magicicicada , by Pennsylvania-based composer Rusty Banks .  Though Marianne met Rusty before (actually at NMG 2016...

A few years ago I was fresh out of grad school and working with a wonderful group of young women, all of us artistic, but each at a different place in our lives: married with children, single parent, newlywed, and idealistic graduate (that was me).  Something they all told me, though, was that there was something about nearing the age of 30 that made them more confident. They didn't care what others thought and cared more about their own path and dreams.  They lost the worry about what the media calls "beautiful" and trusted their own gifts. Nearing 30, I feel exactly what they're talking about. It has been a big year for me in terms of professional personal development. I really started writing here on the blog, sharing my research and thoughts about body awareness and playing. Luckily, you guys decided to read it! This was huge, and a confirmation that I should trust my interests and passions. Husband and I moved to a new state, where I chose to let go of m...

The last weeks have been incredibly busy, as evidenced by my absence. I had this grand plan to release a new essay every week, but life decided I needed to be more realistic. Luckily, my reasons for not having as much time to write are good ones, from finishing a kitchen renovation (yeah, I'm an ADULT now), to have family come to visit, to having enough accompaniment work to keep me busy, to writing my first published article (!!!), and finally to the publishing business doing well. In this time I've also been brainstorming about a non-profit organization that I would really, really like to start. I don't feel like I can share too much about it yet, but I have already bought the domain name and am going to purchase web-building software today or tomorrow. (Those that know me can attest to how serious I must be about this project.) :) I'm incredibly grateful for finding accompaniment work. Everyone said I wouldn't have a problem, but it's nice to see that com...

Technically, I'm on spring break. I don't have to teach a class all week, nor do I have to rehearse with any students. What I do have to do, however, is learn approximately 280 minutes of music to a level I deem worthy of playing in front of my colleagues. So what does that mean? It means Laurel doesn't get a break. Laurel spends hours at a piano hashing and re-hashing parts she learned long ago to make sure that the lines are correct, listens to the metronome for hours on end, and sings those bloomin' melody lines in her head until her brain explodes. Laurel also talks in third person when she's feeling a bit overwhelmed. In the spirit of making myself feel like I've accomplished something in these hours of practicing today, I thought I would catalog the rep I'm learning. Without further ado, Here's what Laurel has been cramming into her brain: with alto sax: J.S. Bach - 2. Sicilienne and Allegro (adapted from Flute Sonata No. 2) Paul Crest...