Here’s Part 2 of my semester preview, with some more brief descriptions of what will be happening in Spring 2015 and beyond (Part 1 is located here).

Orchestral Performances: This spring I’ll have the opportunity to perform on three major orchestral works I’ve never played before: Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra and Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 3 (Rhenish) with the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 1o with the Rapides Symphony Orchestra. I’m especially excited to perform the Schumann, as it has long been on my bucket list of orchestral works.

Horn Conferences: I have plans to perform and present at two large horn conferences this year, the Southeast Horn Workshop, March 6-8 at LSU in Baton Rouge, LA, and the 47th International Horn Symposium, August 2-8 at The Colburn School in Los Angeles, CA. I’ll be performing a new arrangement of mine, Romance, by C.M. von Weber (published by Cimarron Music Press) at the Southeast Workshop, and for the International Horn Symposium I will hopefully be performing the premiere of a new work for horn and harp that I commissioned with assistance from the IHS’s Meir Rimon Commissioning Assistance Fund. I say “hopefully” because while my proposal to perform has been submitted, I won’t find out if it has been accepted until February. Once I have more information about the premiere I’ll post it here. The new work, written by internationally recognized composer Gary Schocker, is entitled In Arkadia. My collaborator for this work will be Dr. Jaymee Haefner, who teaches harp at the University of North Texas.  Dr. Haefner is a fantastic harpist, and we worked together previously on my recording of Jan Koetsier’s Sonata for Horn and Harp.

Solo Duet Training for Horns: My plan this spring is to finish work on Solo Duet Training for Horns, a forthcoming book for Mountain Peak Music. While I will be posting periodically to this blog and updating the job listings, most of my research and creative activity time will be spent on this project. As of now I anticipate a release in early summer of this year. Will post more details as it nears completion.

Reviews, etc. Although I won’t be posting new content every week, I plan to review a couple of horn related publications I obtained late last year: Randy Gardner‘s new book Good Vibrations: Masterclasses for Brass Players, and En-Cor! the latest (and final?) recording from the American Horn Quartet.

It’s shaping up to be a very busy, but fun and engaging semester. Good luck and best wishes to my students and colleagues for the same!