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Michael Maiorana
COMPOSER
November 7, 2018
Lots going on since the last update! I’ll share a couple of my favorite new recordings from recent premieres and performances. Lots of firsts and new things for me!
Nautilus Composer-Librettist Studio
In May I got to take part in the Nautilus Composer-Librettist Studio, a music theater workshop. There’s 5 writers, 5 composers and 5 performers, and every two days or so we got matched together for different projects until we had worked with everyone outside of our own discipline. It was kind of intense, and pushed me outside of the boxes I normally put myself in. I highly recommend it to any writers or composers to apply to! You need two weeks that are completely open, but if you have that option, do it!
Reflections on Water, a multimedia dance production
One of the projects for my Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grant was to write music for the Accidental Ensemble, a trio with violin, flute, and clarinet up in Ely. In the planning stages for the piece, the ensemble mentioned that Molly Olson, a choreographer in Ely, was putting together a multimedia dance production, and suggested combining the two projects. It worked out really well! I wrote a three movement piece about water, and Molly choreographed dance for it. The whole evening all together was maybe an hour and a half long, with my music only being a small part, with lots of other original music and a couple pop songs. Mandy came up to Ely with me for the performance, so we worked in some of our improv duo into the performance, with Molly doing some improv dancing. Two sold out performances! It felt really special to be part of that event.
Elementary and Middle School Music
Another MSAB project was to write for elementary school, which worked out really well! It was the first piece I’ve written for elementary choir, and I want to write more! It sets Robert Louis Stevenson's poem Block City. Here's a recording of Maia Hamann's 3rd grade class in Holdingford, MN.
I’ve been interested in writing for a wider range of age and ability levels, so I also wrote my first piece for middle school students, an SAB setting of Edna St. Vincent Millay's Travel. Here's Song of Travel, sung by the Fugett Chorale at J.R. Fugett Middle School in West Chester, P.A., directed by Matthew Hill.
I've been able to keep up with posting new videos on Mondays! I've added them to the "Other" section of my website. Here's the full playlist so far:
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