Hello from Cleveland! I've been here all week at the Cleveland Composer's Recording Institute, directed by Andrew Rindfleisch at Cleveland State University.
The program brings classical composers into the recording studio and each member of our eight-composer group arrived with a piece to be rehearsed and and professionally produced. My contribution is Illuminated by the Light of Two Ships Passing in the Night, which was premiered in Boston this February. The Cleveland players - Rolf Schulte, David Russell and Geoffrey Burleson - are FANTASTIC, and amongst the very best to touch my music; it's quite a rush!
The recording process is quite different from what I'm used to for concert rehearsals. The music is recorded in sections, and the best take of each is stitched together for the final product. It's a rather clever, method, as the players don't have to endlessly cycle through an entire piece in search of a perfect performance; it's really neat though to be able to isolate sections of the piece and work to get them just right. In the end, that means that the full performance one hears on a CD has never occurred just as such. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around this last bit.
It's been a great bonding experience with the other composers. We all sit through each other's rehearsals and recording sessions, so we've gotten to everyone's works quite well; you'll hear us walking around the halls spiritedly humming each other's tunes. Stylistically, we're a diverse bunch, writing everything from tango to experimental to funk. And of course there is dinner and drinks together at the end of each day!
(posted at http://www.olivercaplan.com/news/)
