Recordings available for FIVE MINIATURES and HEAVY METAL LULLABY

Recordings of Five Miniatures (1983) for flute & euphonium and Heavy Metal Lullaby (2009) for music boxes, glockenspiels (bells), and celestas are now available for downloading exclusively at InstantEncore:

http://www.instantencore.com/MusicDetails.aspx?PId=5032897

Lullaby is $0.49, as is each track of the Five Miniatures. The complete Five Miniatures is $1.99. You can, of course, stream each track online for free. Purchasing these recordings supports contemporary music, as well as this particular contemporary composer.  :-)

Excerpts from the 2nd and 3rd movements of the baritone saxophone concerto are available for listening at InstantEncore as well (complete recording to be released later this year on the Navona Records label) -- excerpts from the new trombone concerto (to be premiered in September in the Czech Republic) will be posted there shortly.

The explosion in classical music digital downloading

Here's a fascinating article from the Wall Street Journal that focuses on one man's new enterprise but also surveys the general scene regarding availability of classical music on the internet versus compact disc purchasing (which is declining precipitously, as you're no doubt already aware). Once the availability of lossless audio the specs for which are indistinguishable from compact discs (or, eventually, SACD and DVD-Audio) becomes commonplace in the downloading environment, look for CDs to become audiophile/fanatic-only items, as SACD and DVD-Audio always have been.

World premiere of the David Gaines euphonium concerto

Twenty-two years after I submitted it as my master's degree thesis at American University, my concerto for euphonium and orchestra is finally getting a public performance -- in its euphonium and piano version, that is. Euphonium soloist Richard Demy will be performing it as part of his graduate euphonium recital at George Mason University's Harris Theatre in Fairfax, Virginia on May 9, 2009 at 3:00 pm. Admission is free. For more information, call the George Mason University Music Department at (703) 993-1380.

The rest of this isn't noise

I've mentioned Alex Ross in the past somewhere on one of my web pages but he's worth mentioning again. Alex is the music critic for The New Yorker and focuses on classical music, but he can speak intelligently about Radiohead and Bob Dylan, too. His book The Rest Is Noise: Listening To The Twentieth Century should be required reading for people interested in orchestral music who are gamely trying to pull themselves out of the 19th century. Now that we're well into the 21st, I think that's a pretty good strategy for most classical music audience members to adopt.

Gustavo Dudamel, El Sistema, and the Teresa Carreño Youth Orchestra of Venezuela

If Gustavo Dudamel can't get young people interested in orchestral music, then it isn't possible:

Matthew Mireles, euphonium performs James Curnow's Symphonic Variants (Part 1)

One of the handful of concertos for euphonium and orchestra that have actually been performed.......if you're curious about what a euphonium sounds like in front of a symphony orchestra, you could do a lot worse than this performance. Bravo.

DG will be at the US Army Tuba-Euphonium Conference January 30th & 31st!

I'll be at the 2009 US Army Tuba-Euphonium Conference at Fort Myer in northern Virginia on Friday & Saturday January 30th & 31st, under my publishing alter ego, Verda Stelo Music. I'll have sheet music on hand for most of my compositions that feature trombone, euphonium, or tuba, including both the full score and the piano reduction of the orchestral euphonium concerto, as well as both of my CD's (The Music Of David Gaines and Music For Winds). Please stop by the vendor area to say hello and get acquainted with my music.

Do Something PAWsitive

Elliott Carter’s Century of Music

Congratulations to Elliott Carter - he turned 100 on December 11th and has no plans to stop composing. Amazing. If you're not familiar with him, check out this feature story on him & his music at NPR's website.