This weekend I get to meet my friend, Wendy Richman, in person. Not just twitter, email, Facebook and over the phone. I'm excited. Here's why:
In the spring of 2009 (i think), I joined twitter. I had lots of friends joining it so i decided if everyone else was doing it I didn't want to miss out on anything. I began following my fellow musicians from college and the random other ones that i knew. discussions with one friend would bring other people into the conversation and before I knew it i had twitter musician friends around the globe. One evening I was having a conversation with two other composers. I don't even remember what we were discussing but i remember being in awe that the three of us were able to connect and discuss in real-time scattered across the globe. One was in Ireland, one in Australia and I was here in Mississippi. I thought that was a wonderful.
One of the musicians i feel incredibly fortunate to have formed a friendship with is Wendy Richman. We met on twitter via a mutual friend, Ken Ueno. Wendy and I had quite a few chats and one day she told me about her commissioning project for new works for singing violist. i was excited and intrigued. We chatted some more and I began writing in mid 2010. the result was Gakka for singing violist. She was able to premiere it the following year. It was wonderful.
So this weekend Wendy is in Biloxi performing in the Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra. I feel like we already know each other quite a bit even though we've never met face to face.
So here is the audio of Wendy performing Gakka for singing violist: