First, CMEA wrap up!
A big thank you to everyone who stopped by our exhibitor's booth at CMEA! It was a pleasure to speak with you all. Both my colleague Bryan Grosbach and I felt like the conference was a huge success, and we plan on coming back next year. If you have any questions regarding any of the perusal scores or works in progress, please feel free to contact me. I would love to speak with you.
That darn MIDI.....
If there is anything that brings out strong opinions among composers and directors, it is the use of MIDI recordings. I read a blog post just today that strongly discouraged the use of MIDI recordings on a composer's website. I have also spoken with people who have equally strong opinions in the opposite direction. Composer's do not always have live recordings available of our works. MIDI recordings are easy for us to make and can, at the very least, give a direction some idea of how the piece sounds. MIDI does indeed lack the musicality of the piece which is one major drawback.
I have made it a point to include MIDI recordings for any pieces that do not have live recordings. It is simple to not listen to the MIDI if one despises the sound. In my undergraduate classes we called it "The Robots." If any one of you has strong opinions (or even luke warm opinions) either way, I would love to hear your feedback. If you are interested in a perusal score, so that you may play through the composition yourself, please feel free to email me.