One Hell of a Year!
Posted By kerryturner on August 2, 2010
It’s the first of August. My vacation has finally begun. It has been an incredibly eventful year. When I think back to last August, just as that’s year’s holiday drew to a close after two weeks of solitude and non-hornistic occupation, I am filled with emotion, both good and bad. My concert and travel schedule from September 2009 till July 27th, 2010 resembled that of a rock star. This included activities as a composer and, even more, as a horn player. Over these eleven months, I have performed with either the Virtuoso Horn Duo, the American Horn Quartet, the Luxembourg Philharmonic or as a soloist in over twelve countries, including no less than four trips to the U.S. (it should have been five). After having paged through my date book, I can count at least eighty concerts! During all of this, I was experiencing some major “chop” difficulties, about which I have been quite vocal. Although I had some damn close calls, I am extremely happy to report that I seem to have emerged out of the other end of this crisis rather unscathed. Suffice it to say, it was very tough on my health.
Compositionally, I managed to produce a bit of opus. For starters, I completed my first symphony- “The Grail Symphony.” I also penned a few pieces and arrangements for the VHD and the AHQ. The OPL played a small commissioned piece of mine (and they have booked my tone-poem “Karankawa” for next season, by the way), and I composed a piece for combined woodwind and brass quintets called “The Navajo Mandala”.
So where do I go from here? Spain. For two weeks of “R and R”. Next season looks much easier. I will be dedicating quite a bit of time to my compositional library, including publishing and promotion. But most of all, and in the immediate future, I will be reliving the thrilling moments as well as the deep valleys of anxiety which, from henceforth in my life, shall always define my 2009-2010 season.
“You never know when you have enough until you have too much.”
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