June in Buffalo did a composer/conductor workshop this year with the Slee Sinfonietta and an all-star crew of composer/conductor mentors. I had the luck of being paired up with David Dzubay, the director of the Indiana University New Music Ensemble, who really set me straight in my conducting.
My new work, Ton, turned out great. To hear the premiere recording, go to this youtube live stream and skip to the last work on the concert (1:52:06): https://youtu.be/dfJBZxe6-bk
This past April, my new (and way too difficult) saxophone quartet, Alinea, was premiered by the outstanding New Thread Sax Quartet. The work, meaning a new line of thinking (as does “New Thread”), explores the idea of “improvisation” within notated music. It’s the beginning of a new line of thinking within my compositional practice, and I cannot wait to share this work. I just got the recording back and am in the process of getting it ready for publishing. More on this soon!
A MASSIVE thank you to New Thread for utterly annihilating their chops in the realization of this work. Y’all are superstars and I cannot wait to see what’s next for your group.
My work, Tomorrow was premiered on the December 6th Penn Sound Collective concert at The University of Pennsylvania. For one of my first semester projects, I thought this turned out very well!
A big thank you to Wendy Lu (cello) and Elijah Orlenko for their amazing work on this piece! And also a big thank you to Tyshawn Sorey for covering my scores in kind and supportive red ink each week. Also a big thank you to Alexey for the amazing camera work and editing of this work.
My master’s thesis, Speak Louder Than Words for orchestra, can now be viewed in video form online! Please follow this link to stream it on youtube: https://youtu.be/I67F7fD3mSc This performance is of the Shepherd School of Music Symphony Orchestra directed by Jerry Hou.
A big thank you to the New England Philharmonic for giving this work a slated second performance upcoming on June 1st from 4-7PM. The “public reading session” will include a rehearsal as well as a final performance, so please come by and view the normally behind the scenes process of rehearsing this work before it is read at the end of the session.
If you’d like to follow along to a score of this work or read more about it, please go to my page on this work by clicking here.
This upcoming fall I’ll begin my PhD in music composition at the University of Pennsylvania as a Fontaine Fellow. I’m super excited to get to work with the very tight-knit composer community there, which includes such amazing composer faculty as Natacha Diels, Anna Weesner, and last year’s Pulitzer Prize recipient, Tyshawn Sorey. I’ll get to take part in a number of performances by visiting ensembles in the department as well as the yearly new music for orchestra readings at the Curtis Institute. Additionally, I’ll be performing in ensembles at Penn’s campus such as the Penn Symphony Orchestra (directed by a Rice alum!)
It’s going to be a really drastic change going from the car-centric and blazing hot Houston to walkable and chilly Philly. As a fan of the snow, I warmly welcome this change in atmosphere.
OLIVER DUBON 