B E B E R E

Well...

Went into Karen's office to get some chocolate and found three CDs of mine that I'd forgotten about. Grabbed them up, put them into my bag, and got to thinking about some great musical opportunities coming up.

At First Night 2005, one of the performances we got to see was a concert by MIT's Gamelan Galaktika. They're playing at Bowdoin College up in Brunswick, ME on the 5th of February, so we'll be paying a visit, I'm pretty sure.

The sounds of the gamelan washing over me got me to thinking of some of my favorite minimalist composers. How serendipitous that the Boston Modern Orchestra Project sends me an email informing me that their next big concert, on February 18th, will feature works by some major minimalists (Adams, Eliot Porter, Cage, among others). Also to note is the April 15th concert devoted to the works of Toru Takemitsu. (I wrote a teeny bit about Takemitu's score for "Double Suicide" being influenced by gamelan here.)

Finally, not related to any of the above things or the CDs in Karen's office, but I'm kind of sad that I'm not going to make it to the Opera Boston performance of Gluck's "Alceste" this weekend. It's my birthday on Monday, and as has been the tradition since I moved to the coast 17 years ago, I'm going to go spend the weekend at the beach. Looking at the Majestic's schedule for the rest of the season, however, I note that there are at least four other performances I wouldn't mind catching. It's been a while since I've heard some good opera (well, since the NEC grad students were replaced by Tufts undergrads next door to me), and, well, I think I'm craving some now.