From the Summit performance

Cantabile’s performance of From the Summit was absolutely beautiful! I was thrilled to be there in person when they premiered it. Dr. Brian Stone’s interpretation of the piece was stunning, and of course, Stella Pradeau is a magnificent pianist, and she rocked it. It was such a privilege to have my work premiered by them. The performance video can be viewed here: From the Summit. Please give it a listen!

A New Website Address

During the last year as so many things were happening, I accidentally let my website domain expire. Now some jerk wants me to buy it back from him for nearly $1000 which is not going to happen. I have changed the domain to www.mistyldupuis.net. I hope this doesn’t cause anyone issues, and I apologize for any inconvenience.

Concerts are Happening Again!

Contabile

Not long before the world shut down, I was contacted by my friend and colleague Brian Stone, the conductor of Contabile, a Boulder-based choir. Long story short, I wrote them a piece using the words of Isabella L. Bird from when she ascended Long’s Peak in Colorado. Her words are so moving, and they were begging to be set to music. :) I am really proud of the finished piece. It was to be premiered in May 2020, but that concert was canceled due to the pandemic. It was to be a special concert that included several Colorado composers and some young composers who were mentored by another colleague, Kevin Padworski. I did have the privilege of doing a virtual session with the choir last spring. This time was my second opportunity to work with them in some capacity, and I really enjoy them. The choir has some fabulous people.

Recently, I had the pleasure of learning that the concert will go on this November! They are changing the concert up a bit, but most of the music that would have been performed is back on the program. I am incredibly excited to hear the whole concert, and, of course, doubly excited to hear the premiere of From the Summit, the first in a series of works about the old west from women’s perspectives. The series is called Stereopticon: Women’s Voices in the American “Old West.” Stay tuned because I will be talking about this concert a lot. It is so incredibly exciting to be able to think about live music again. I have missed concerts terribly. Hooray for science and vaccinations!

Virtual Choir

It is no secret that I am a bit of a technophobe. So, as you can imagine, this past choir season was a bit challenging for me. Having choir practices over Zoom was…… unique. The church choir members are truly a joy, and I am so glad we had that medium to, at least, make some music. Some of my attempts at virtual choir works were successful, and some needed help. Luckily, we had a new member join who had experience and expertise in that field, and he helped us sound good! I arranged a Spiritual for us to record. I am very skeptical of non-Black composers arranging Spirituals because that is a very sacred medium that needs to be treated with respect. This arrangement is not something that I will be making available for sale. It was strictly for the St. Barnabas choir to meet our needs. I arranged it with that specific ensemble in mind, and I am very proud of the results - both the finished work and the choir’s performance of it. I am so glad that our tech-savvy member was able to render the recording so masterfully. I am also VERY glad that we’re looking at in-person rehearsals this season! Can I just say, again, hooray for vaccines?!

A Challenging Year

This year, I lost my mother and my father-in-law and my dad had a heart attack. I have been struggling to stay afloat, but the thing that sustains me is music. I hope the rest of you are able to find some solace in music or whatever else brings you joy. Please stay safe, and I look forward to seeing some of you at, wait for it, IN-PERSON CONCERTS! Oh goodness - I cannot wait!!!

Big News!

CMEA

Happy New Year everyone! I am so looking forward to sharing a booth with my colleague Bryan Grosbach again this year. We should have more composers with us this year, so please stop by, check out new music, and say hello!

Publication

My big news is - drum roll please - To Madame Curie, written for SSA and piano is being published by Hal Leonard. It is a piece that I wrote this past summer for the women's choir at Prairie Middle School. Bella Voce is directed by Phil Drozda, a truly phenomenal middle school music teacher. They will be premiering the work on May 14, and I am so excited to hear them. This one is very special for me since my daughter sings in Bella Voce and will be singing with the choir for the premiere. The piece is being published in the Andrea Ramsey Choral Series. I will be sure to let you all know when it is released!

Colorado Mesa University

In October, Bryan Grosbach, Tyler Wiggington, and I traveled to Colorado Mesa University for a Colorado "Composium." The choirs at CMU performed our work, and we also got to spend a couple of days meeting and working with the choirs and their director Dr. Monte Atkinson. We also had a little bit of time to get to know the other choir director at the school, Dr. Graham Anduri. It was an honor and a pleasure to get to work with these singers. They premiered a piece I wrote a few years ago in memory of my dear friend Sarah, In Paradisum. They did a beautiful job on the piece, and I was honored to have them premiere it. You can see the recording here. 

Christmas Eve Premiere

On Christmas Eve, I had the pleasure of attending the premiere of Be Not Afraid. I wrote this piece for the Grandview Ward Choir under the direction of Lauren Bales, and I thoroughly enjoyed their performance. I hope to have a recording of that piece up soon - I just have to okay it with their director!

That's all for now! Please come say hello at CMEA.

New pieces available

I had planned on spending more time working on the website this summer, but I was blind sided by my older brother's cancer diagnosis. It's been a very hard summer. I feel incredibly blessed that I was able to get to Arkansas and spend a little time with him before he died. I had to take several weeks off work though this summer to just try and deal with the grief. 

New Choral Pieces

I am back at work now though and have added several pieces to the website. I have one new sacred Christmas piece - Be Not Afraid. This piece was written for the Grandview Ward Choir. It is an SATB piece with piano accompaniment. The piece is not too terribly challenging, so it should be appropriate for an non-auditioned church choir. 

I also have added two other sacred, unaccompanied pieces - I Will Give You Rest and His Mercy Endures Forever. These two pieces are more difficult. I Will Give You Rest is a very challenging piece. His Mercy Endures Forever is less challenging, but they are both SSAATTBB pieces.

The last piece is also sacred. I wrote this piece for Good Friday service at Cameron United Methodist Church. It is called Do Not Weep For Me. It is a modal piece for SATB and piano. There is a short treble solo (suitable for either an alto or soprano). Unfortunately, I cannot find the audio recording of the premiere! I'm so disappointed! I have included a MIDI audio recording. 

Big News Coming Soon!

Yes. I am a tease! I'll write about it next week, so check back soon! As always, if you have any questions or feedback, please do not hesitate to contact me. If you are interested in a perusal score in any of the new works (or any of the old works for that matter), I'll be glad to send it to you.

A Winter Ride - premiere

Cantabile did a fabulous job with the premiere of A Winter Ride.

I was thrilled to attend the Sunday performance of "Winter's Passing," the second concert of the year for Cantabile, an auditioned, Boulder based, mixed choir directed by Brian Stone. Cantabile is a bit unique in that they do not have a Christmas or Holiday concert. Their winter concert is at the beginning of February. Their conductor programmed a concert of songs that celebrated winter and the coming of spring. On the concert were such choral germs as Morten Lauridsen's "Mid-Winter Songs," and two movements of Paul Hindemith's "Six Chansons." 

I was particularly excited to hear "Song for Snow," by Florence B. Price. Price was an incredible composer and someone that I particularly admire. It was an honor to have my piece performed along side her's on this concert. 

"A Winter Ride" was the first piece on the program which was incredibly fun for me because then I got to relax and just enjoy the rest of the concert! I was thrilled at how the piece sounded. I had the privilege of attending one of Cantabile's recent rehearsals. They were very welcoming to me, and I enjoyed sharing the story of how "A Winter Ride" came to be written. 

I have posted the video on composition page for "A Winter Ride."

I would like to offer a big "thank you" to both Brian Stone and Cantabile for their performance of "A Winter Ride." I know they worked hard to learn and polish the piece. It was a thrill for me to hear the piece performed. 

To MIDI, or not to MIDI, that is the question

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.

As always, I appreciate any and all feedback! Thank you!

Colorado Music Educator's Association Conference

Exhibitor's Booth

My friend and fellow local composer, Bryan Grosbach, and I are teaming up with a joint exhibitor's booth at the upcoming Colorado Music Educator's Association Conference in Colorado Springs later this month. The conference is hosted every year at the Broadmoor Hotel. This year the conference is being held from January 26 - 28. I am so excited to present our work to this year's conference attendees. My daughter will be performing at the conference this year with the Prairie Middle School Bella Voce under the direction of Mr. Phil Drozda. I have roped her into helping out with the booth! I will have all of my choral works available at the conference, and I also plan on having a few arts songs, solo instrumental works, and small chamber instrumental works. 

Please stop by and say hello!

Website Launch!

I am so thrilled for the launch of my website.

I enjoy writing both choral and instrumental works, and you will find both if you click on the "compositions" page. Right now I have choral works for many levels in both SATB and SSAA (some with divisi). I hope to have some men's choir pieces available soon.

I am also working on several children's choir pieces which will be compiled in a book with an accompaniment CD that I plan to have available by the end of the year.

If you are looking for something specific that you do not see, please send me an email, and I'd love to speak with you about it.

Stay tuned for more news!