After three performances, I’d like to recap the last couple month’s musical adventures. I am happy to announce that all three premieres of mine went very well. Also, two recordings are in the works! The first recording, my piece for wind ensemble and drum set soloist, Exorcism, is being released by the Cornell University Wind Ensemble with Derek Roddy as soloist. The recording will be available for free download on the Cornell University Wind Ensemble website when it is complete, with a request for a donation to their Costa Rica Project. The recording will also be available on CD by request, and in addition to other pieces, will also feature my friend and colleague Christopher Stark’s fantastic new piece Augenblick.

The Concerto for Electric Guitar, Electric Bass, Synthesizer, Drum Set, and Orchestra went extremely well and will also be released on a recording by the Contemporary Youth Orchestra. (More details on that when I learn more information.) It was great to be back in Cleveland which in many ways feels like my hometown city. (Go Cavs!) The concert received a very nice review at coolcleveland.com which can be read by clicking here.

The premiere of Strife at Carnegie Hall also received a review, this time from the New York Times, but alas, not quite as effusive as coolcleveland.com. Those interested can click here, but you may want to pay more attention to the review written by Kelly Ferjutz. However, I am quite fortunate –with all three pieces involving soloists of some sort, all performers were incredibly well-prepared and wonderful to work with, as were all three conductors.

Looking forward, I am currently writing a solo piece for my friend Chihiro Shibiyama, a percussion student at Juilliard. Then soon after that, or perhaps concurrently, I will be writing a piece for the Festival Chamber Orchestra at Cornell.

In other very exciting and related news, I spent the first week of 2009 in London to observe recording sessions at Abbey Road Studios of a new CD of music written by my dad, Jack Gallagher, as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra with JoAnn Falletta conducting. Keep an eye out for its release on a major label soon, though I won’t make any more information public than that, just to be safe.

In other very exciting but unrelated news, after almost 20 years of struggle and epic battles, I finally beat the entire Nintendo game Punch-Out!!. It took enormous dedication and a lot of procrastinating from other more important work, but I finally took Mr. Dream out by TKO in Round 3 with very little time remaining. I’ve since been able to beat him a few more times, including by decision, surprisingly, but it’s still not easy. Meanwhile, for such a difficult game, there is very little satisfaction after winning—no grand parade or otherwise, just a short congratulatory exclamation from Mr. Dream, and then the credits roll.

That’s all for now. Happy 2009 to the three of you who read this blog!

I am excited to announce that the Cornell University Wind Ensemble will be premiering a new piece of mine in November entitled Exorcism, featuring heavy metal drum set virtuoso Derek Roddy as guest soloist.

Roddy has been a tremendous inspiration for me in the past few years, and I have admired his musicianship and incredible drumming facility ever since I encountered his recorded work with numerous extreme metal bands, his videos via YouTube, and more recently bought and studied his fantastic and comprehensive book The Evolution of Blast Beats. A simple YouTube search will provide many staggering videos of Roddy performing, but here is a link to one of my personal favorites.

Cornell University Wind Ensemble music director Cynthia Johnston Turner will be conducting the premiere and was kind enough to provide this opportunity for me to explore a compositional idea I've had germinating for years. I'm thrilled about the musical possibilities of a pairing like this.

The concert will also feature the world premiere of a new piece by Christopher Stark, a great composer and friend of mine studying at Cornell.

In addition to this concert, the two commissioned pieces I mentioned in my previous blog entry have been completed and are awaiting their respective premieres, as can be seen in the Upcoming Shows section.

The end of November/beginning of December will constitute the most premieres (and perhaps even performances) I've ever received in the span of less than a month!

I am working on two newly commissioned pieces this summer. Both pieces will be premiered in late 2008 and I'm tremendously excited about both opportunities.

First is a short (not-quite-concerto) piano solo with orchestra for the New York Youth Symphony. The soloist will be Hao Chen Zhang and it will be conducted by Ryan McAdams. Ryan McAdams is a phenomenal musician and conductor who conducted a piece of mine at Juilliard in 2005 when we both went to school there. It will be an honor to work with him again and to have a piece premiered by Hao Chen Zhang and the NYYS. The work will be premiered at Carnegie Hall on November 30th.

Next will be a concerto for electric guitar, electric bass, keyboards, drum set, and orchestra, to be played by the group Electric Kompany and the Contemporary Youth Orchestra conducted by Liza Grossman. Electric Kompany is an exciting new ensemble and I've been hoping to work with the group ever since I became aware of them last summer. I used to play in the Contemporary Youth Orchestra and have had two pieces performed by the orchestra in the past, with the enormously supportive music director, Liza Grossman, conducting. CYO was instrumental in piquing my interest in new music in high school, and it's always a pleasure to return to my roots and work with the orchestra again. The work will be premiered at Cleveland State University on December 13th.

I'll also be attending the Composers Conference at Wellesley College at the end of July, so this should be a busy summer!

More updates as things progess. Until then, I really should be composing.

A link to the review in the New York Times of the concert at which my new piece Sirens was premiered.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/22/arts/music/22juil.html?_r=2&ref=music&oref=slogin&oref=slogin