Shadowcatcher!

So, it's been confirmed, so I can get excited about it now...

My brass quintet has been in contact with composer Eric Ewazen, and we decided that this year we were going to perform his concerto for brass quintet, Shadowcatcher. It is a 35 minute work, based on photographs from the early 1910s, depicting Native American life in various respects. Certainly a monumental work to undertake, but we figured, with everyone in the school playing the same things every year, that we should do something different. So, we started looking at Shadowcatcher, and were hoping that Eric could give us some hints as to how to get some percussion parts to go along with the piano reduction, since it was originally scored for Wind Orchestra, and there is quite a bit of rhythmic emphasis. This led, through a chain of conversations, to the director of the Wind Symphony at UVic, who was very interested in performing the work. A few calls to Southern Music in Texas, and the rental was secured, the date is set for February 9th, 2007, and it looks to be the Canadian Premiere of the work with Wind Symphony! Very exciting! Very scary! Rehearsals have started, and work has begun on tearing apart the insanity.

Now all we need is a name for our quintet...