Jingle Bells all the way!

I friend of mine facebooked me this week and asked how nice it must be to be at the end of term. Well, I guess I'm not commuting, but the pressure is heavy as tescos birthday cakes!
It is nice to be home for a while. Especially in this bizarre siberian weather. My little car, which has been so loyal, broke down today :( The RAC reckoned about a 5 hour wait, and suggested I try to get the kids home. Poor OJ has been poorly this week anyway, so we set off into the cold. Randomly, we stumbled across some carol singers, and a kindly priest offered to take us home. Now that's nice. Oscar got so cold, he was coughing like a loon, and when we got out the car, poor little chap was sick, just from coughing. Hot chocolate, manuka honey, bath and cuddles soon straightened him out, but my stress levels were through the roof! However, the new 'healthier' me, opted for a fresh mint tea to calm the nerves, which worked a treat.


Anyway; of the music? It's hard not to get overwhelmed, but I figure the best thing to do is write music. It gets me out of my head, and gets me closer to achieving my goals, so it's a double whammy. I am really glad to have found a time management technique that works well for me - I set my iphone timer to 25 minutes, and will not do anything except write in that time. Then I have a 5-10 minute break, where I do things like write this blog, or send an email, or check my receding bank balance! It's great. if I can get 4 or more of those in a day, I see real progress.


So here's the lay of the land;
Chroma ensemble piece - 8 minutes, due Jan
Accordion piece for Rafal - sketches asap
Animation project - due 6 Jan
Choreographer Collaboration - due 13 Feb
Oboe piece using live electronics -due 3 Feb
New projects coming up in Jan...phew


Plus gigs; choir, christmas, NYE, new solo performance venue 6 Feb. Blahblah.


Teaching is done until 5 Jan. That's a good thing!


My Chroma piece is based on a piece of contemporary Chinese art 'Shadows of Trees on Sunny Water' by Cao Jingping - taking different elements of the textures as influences for the musical material, which is working well here. It occurred to me last night, that Cao Jingping might like to know what I'm up to, so I sent an email to an art gallery inBeijing, who are currently exhibiting his work, to see if they can put me in touch with him. I hope he gets in touch. Would just be interesting...


Oh - the music theatre piece went down a storm. The snow finally abated on the Saturday, and I was able to get up to London for the performance. Fancy the first time you ever hear the music the you wrote being played at the performance! It was one of the most nerve-wracking experiences I have had ever! Luckily, it worked though. The singers were pleased as punch, and the trumpet player said he loved the muted trumpet part. Generally, great feedback. Crikey - what a trip!


LVP completely rocked out at Lauderdale house last week. Class gig! We had Tim Whitehead guesting on sax (we sung one of his compositions), Kenny Wheeler was there (we sung a few of his compositions), the lovely Nikki Iles trio backing us up (Yi, we sung one of Nikki's too!)
It was just a beautiful vibe in the room. 
Can't wait til Sunday's gig at the 606. All our classic tunes. Will be a riot! (Oh please don't let the silly snow stop me from getting there)
Next year's performance of the Jon Hendricks vocalese for choir over Miles Ahead (Gil Evans), has been confirmed - Jon has asked us to all get a copy of the album and listen to it every day before we go to bed, and first thing in the morning. So I am. I put it on when I go to bed - think I'll have the first 3 tracks sorted, but might never get to hear the rest; am usually so exhausted by the time I finally turn in! There is a version of Nature Boy on there. My fave song of all time - I sing it to OJ every night, bless my little man.


Okey dokey - I've oer-run my 10 minute break, so it's back to work for me, next 25 minutes going on the clock...


Merry Christmas one and all.


Ding Dong Merrily on high :)


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