Thursday, July 24, 2008

Unintentional Hiatus

Don't have much to blog about. Starting a new piece today (composition, not story). Really getting antsy for school to start.

Don't ever let any artist tell you that if they could stay home for months on end, they would produce a novel or a symphony or a series of paintings. I've learned two things about myself this summer: 1) I often avoid writing to avoid research. 2) I really produce a lot more when I'm busy.

Often my days fly by. Before I know it, it's 5 p.m. and I've gotten very little accomplished. Other days I accomplish a lot before noon. Going to have to set a schedule now. I may post it so you guys can help me stick with it.

On the other hand, I saw something wonderful last Sunday. Don't know if any of you caught last week's 60 Minutes (I've been a huge fan of that show since I was a kid, but that's another blog entry), but they had another airing about el Sistema, the orchestra program in Venezuela. Check it out if you haven't.



Now, if that violinist's smile isn't enough to make a composer want to compose a symphony for one of the orchestras of this program, I don't know what is. And I'm officially now a HUGE fan of Gustavo Dudamel, the highly celebrated conductor who came out of el Sistema, and who is taking over as Music Director for the L.A. Philharmonic in 2009. Now I can't effing wait to move to L.A.!

I hope someone with enough flair and stick-to-it-iveness starts something like this in the United States. We need it.

3 comments:

Kiersten White said...

Glad you are getting good stuff done ; )

Anonymous said...

There are people with "enough flair and stick-to-it-iveness [to start] something like this in the United States." I think there's something already underway in LA, plus also New York City. And--most inspiring of all--Birmingham AL. More on these two at http://elsistemanyc.net/

Stacy said...

Excellent! I plan to be a part of this when I move to L.A. Thanks for the info, marahfab!