Laurel Black Music

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...

 Woohoo, y'all!! On behalf of the Percussive Arts Society, I am pleased to invite you to participate in the 42 annual Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC® 2017) in Indianapolis, Indiana. This year, PASIC® will take place Wednesday, November 8 through Saturday, November 11 at the Indiana Convention Center. Your Professional Development proposal, “ PercussionMind: The Mental Performance Habits of Today's Top Percussionists...and Where You Fit In ,” has been accepted to be presented at PASIC17! I am beyond excited that a current passion project, PercussionMind, will be revealed this year at PASIC.  If you want a quick summary of what it is, and learn about my collaborator, Mike Cerreto, check out the tab in the menu bar above. :) PercussionMind is inspired by that long thought-journey taken as a young adult as you wonder what, exactly, suits you best in the professional music realm.  Here's a jaunt through my personal story: In early undergrad, ...

Thumbs. Without them who knows how we'd play our instruments. Interest in the relationship between the hand, wrist, and thumb began a few years ago when I took piano lessons to refine my technique. (As similar as piano and percussion are in theory , there's much less crossover than I mistakenly thought and hoped.)   Anyway, something my mentor said was when the thumb isn't being used it should relax towards the rest of the hand and fingers.  Sure, may sound obvious, but in the throes of playing - piano or percussion - it's easy to forget little things like this.  Brain: Play a broken 13 over 7, across 6 surfaces...crescendo...oh, right. THUMB. End Scene Thumbs that are mis-mapped, working more than they should, or working when they don't need to contribute to funny aches, pains, and numbness that can get mistaken for carpal tunnel.   Just like all other subjects in the Marimba Body series, how we relate to the structure and movement desi...

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...

One of my most inspiring teachers, actress Carol Mayo Jenkins, would be pleasantly [un]surprised to learn that one of her adages has been confirmed time and time again by science.  I'll never forget the class when she said to us (and I paraphrase):  Feel this. Do you know a body of joy cannot hold despair, and a body of despair cannot hold joy.  She told us to stand tall, arms outstretched, face towards the ceiling; from there, we were to find the emotion of despair. One by one we each collapsed and closed slowly, unable to maintain such an upright, celebratory, and open position. That day was important; it was the day I realized that my kinesthetic awareness could affect how I experience my life. ---    Those of us that identify as artistic, creative types often deal with levels of anxiety and depression, sometimes very mild, sometimes more severe.  We Millennials, Gen X-ers, Baby Boomers, and Boomlets aren't the first to deal with t...

The weather this week in our part of VA has done nothing but create headache, both literally and figuratively.  If you're one of the unlucky millions of people who suffer from chronic migraines, the constant shifts from hot/somewhat dry to blustery, stormy humidity and cooler temps would have you reaching for either Excedrin or exceptional amounts of ibuprofen, as I've been doing these last few days. The world doesn't stop for a migraine, though sometimes our schedules allow us to sneak in a nap that helps dull the pain.  For those of us that make a living playing music, an ill-timed migraine can mean a bad performance or thwarted practice schedule. What Makes a Headache a Migraine? Migraines tend to not be acute, and rather progress through four stages over one to several days: Prodrome, Aura, Headache, and Post-drome.   Mayo Clinic has an entry that explains symptoms, but here's a synopsis. Prodrome - food and stomach weirdness, in what you want...