WMV Music Web Log

Funny that now that I'm at home, I don't have time to blog - well, of course, I am writing grant proposals. Today it's assembling data to use in writing the basic foundation proposal. It is actually kind of fun to look back and compile data about what we have done. Here is a preview:

I counted 70 musicians who have performed in 80 concerts with WMV over the last 6 and a half years. With them we have performed works of 45 living composers, of whom 18 are Washington area residents:

Ulf Grahn, I. Masatoshi Mitsumoto, Michael Strand, John Kamman, David Teie, James Brody, Blair Goins, Terry Vosbein, Lawrence Moss, John Stephens, Lori Laitman, Maurice Saylor, Nicholas Maw, Jessica Krash, Osman Kivrak, Jeffrey Mumford, Chien-Tai Chen, David Baker, Stephen Paulus, George Walker, Charles Brown, Libby Larsen, Stefan Meylaers, Andrew Stiller, Walter S. Hartley, John Harbison, William Bolcom, Arthur Jarvinen, Hanus Barton, Steve Reich, Elizabeth Brown, Bob Dylan, Victor Kalabis, Petr Eben, Peter Graham, John McCabe, Karel Husa, Yehudi Wyner, Miroslav Pudlak, Gyorgy Kurtag, Ivana Loudova, Adrian Anderson, David Wolfson, William Banfield, Ladislav Kubik.

23 composers participated in WMV events, and five have written works specifically for performance at WMV.

In addition, we performed works of 34 contemporary composers who are no longer alive: Robert Starer, Darius Milhaud, Aaron Copland, Paul Bowles, Erwin Schulhoff, Bohuslav Martinu, Viteszlav Novak, Alfred Schnittke, Walter Kerr, Alois Haba, Mark Blitzstein, Eric Korngold, Kurt Weill, Howard Swanson, Russell Woollen, Leos Janacek, Pavel Borkovec, Joachim Stutschewsky, Paul Creston, Mordecai Seter, Ernest Bloch, Maurice Durufle, Pavel Haas, Viktor Ullmann, John Ware, Hans Krasa, Karel Boleslav Jirak, Dmitri Shostakovich, Alec Wilder, Halsey Stevens, Gideon Klein, Astor Piazzolla, Miloslav Istvan, Ira Herskowitz.

We have done this in the context of great performances of numerous classical masterpieces, including works by neglected composers like Amy Beach and Robert Fuchs.

Fifty-three poets, writers, and visual artists have performed, mostly at the BannerArts studio in Kensington: Michael S Glaser, Edgar Gabriel Silex, Paul Grayson, Karren Alenier, Christopher Conlon, Margaret Paris, Judi Tenhunen, David Cheng, Lorene Sarne, Linda Pastan, Joyce Ellen Weinstein, Hiram Larew, Hilary Tham, Brandon Johnson, Ori Soltes, Sidney March, Monica Hand, Denise Johnson, Barbara Crooker, Miriam Nathan, E. Ethelbert Miller, Ron Wray, Maritza Rivera, Marguerite Beck-Rex, Elisabeth Murawski, Tom Mandel, Davi Walders, John Smith, Quique Aviles, Michael Flack, Basil King, Martha King, Barbara DeCesare, Ori Soltes, Ira Chaleff, Lila Snow, Louise Farmer Smith, Linda Joy Burke, Lauren Haywood, Sibbie O’Sullivan, Michael Platt, David Cheng, Marilyn Banner, Percy Martin, Alice Sims, Joseph McMahon, Anne Benolken, Yvonne Carter, Juli Staiano, Ben Costa, Roberta Staat, Bill Harris.

We sent out 45 sets of postcards to advertise our events, each with original art by Marilyn Banner. The Washington Post has covered our events with 10 reviews and 2 features. The Montgomery County Gazette has published 3 features. We have had seven reviews on websites, and been interviewed twice on radio, by WETA and Voice of America. We have been supported by hundreds of individual donors, as well as by grants from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, the Maryland State Arts Council, and The Randy Hostetler Living Room Music Fund.

It looks pretty successful to me - and it has been a lot of fun! Now comes the task of convincing granting entities that it is in their interest to support us to do much much more of the same.

Happy New Year! (Despite everything). I feel good - it's been a few days since I've been full-time at music (and Musica Viva management). Yesterday (clued in by Duncan McHale) I went to Chuck Levin's and bought a "guitar trainer" - a CD player that will change pitch or speed (independently!) How did I ever live without it? It uses up 4 double A batteries every 45 minutes or so, so I really need that adapter that they didn't have in stock yesterday. Then I stopped next door at the keyboard place and asked to see the best they had - it turned out to be a Kawai, and it was very good! The sales guy was extremely knowledgable and helpful - but the model I need is not sold in this country, so he looked for it on ebay and on European websites. Would I buy it? I don't know, but it makes me happy that it exists.

Spent all day playing with the the guitar trainer (12 batteries) - found most of the wrong notes in the recording of the George Walker viola sonata, and figured out what the guitarist does differently on the Piazzolla. Last night's rehearsal of Ulf Grahn's new Trio went spectacularly - an amazing work, sounds like just about nothing I have ever heard. We actually got it up to speed, with the metronome clicking very loudly. (Check out the photos of Kim and Anders on the website!)

Office supply emergency in late afternoon: Avery's tinted glue sticks don't work! Don't buy them! Complain to Avery and Staples! UHU sticks used to work, but I can't find them anymore. Without glue sticks, no paste-ups, and without paste-ups I am lost.

I do more cooking, as expected, but haven't yet managed to vacuum or mop. I finished entering the 2004 financial data for the WMV books - it was a big year, to my surprise, almost double the 2003 budget. If we can double it again in 2005, we'll be in very good shape. I am learning to be simply grateful to people who donate money, time, and services - in fact, I am eager to receive more of all of them!