Latest News 5/18/13

Next week will mark 3 months in Brazil on my Fulbright scholarship, already 1/3 of the way through. I am currently in the city of Campos dos Goytacazes working with a fabulous music education program here. I've been bloggingweekly about my experiences here, so take a look if you want to know about the interesting things I've been up to.

Two of my works for wind ensemble/concert band, Do You Hear How Many You Are? (Grade 2) and Waltzing Dervish (Grade 6) have been accepted and featuredon the newly-launched website NewBandMusic.com, which catalogs high-quality band repertoire from self-published composers. If you know a band director, take a look and share this great website with them. Beyond my works, there are a whole host of great pieces waiting to be performed.

Speaking of Do You Hear How Many You Are? for concert band, just a week after it was premiered by Devin Otto and the Minot State University Symphonic Band in North Dakota, it was named a finalist in the prestigious3rd International Frank Ticheli Competition. Let your middle school and high school band director friends know that they can also view the full score, listen to recordings, and purchase PDF copies of scores and parts for this piece (and my other band works) through this page of my website.

Another concert band work of mine, Carousel for Concert Band (Grade 4.5) was named winner of the 2013 Beta Omicron Composition Competition held at Arizona State University in April! The piece will be performed this fall by the William Field High School Symphonic Band in Arizona. It was also given a reading by the Arizona State University Wind Symphony, which you can listen to here.

In March, my Capriccio Dondolante for Violin and Piano was awarded Honorable Mention in the first annual Composition Contest of theMassachusetts chapter of the American String Teachers Association!

My "A Day of Sunshine" for Chorus and Orchestra(which you can hearhere) was performed on May 4th, 5th, and 12th byBerkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra as a finalist in their 2012 Young Composer Competition. Although I did not win, I received three suburb performances and recordings from the group. Also, check outthis video the group made with excerpts from rehearsals and interviews with myself and the other finalists.

In April, my Do You Hear How Many You Are? (the original choral version) was performed several times throughout England by the Longmeadow (MA) High School Lyrics on their spring tour, including in the Gloucester Cathedral, Stratford-upon-Avon (birthplace of Shakespeare), and at Gresham's School as part of Benjamin Britten's 100th birthday celebrations at the school he attended. PDF scores of the piece are available for purchase throughthis page of my website.

Additionally, theSchola Cantorum on Hudson will be performing this same work on their concerts this weekend in New York City and New Jersey. My piece is featured as a member of theirPROJECT : ENCORE™ Database ,which promotes post-premiere performances of significant new choral music. I have two works in the database, and just like with NewBandMusic.com, there are lots of great works beyond mine as well to check out, so let your choir director friends know about it!

Thanks for reading, have a good summer (or winter, like it will be down here in Brazil).

-Keane

Featured Video

"Do You Hear How Many You Are?" for SATB choir by Keane Southard (with score)

Performed by the Ars Nova Singers.

Latest Updates

Brazil: Week 12 - Playing my Part with the Orchestra

20 May 2013

Keane Southard

Last week, I was honestly feeling like I was in a bit of a rut with my research project here in Campos. I felt like I had observed so many rehearsals and classes that I wasn't learning many new things, and with the start of the Symphonic Festival...

Brazil: Week 11 - Interview with Jony William and Symphonic Festival begins

13 May 2013

Keane Southard

Jony William (left) and myself with our Symphonic Festival shirts on I finally got to interview Jony William, the founder and director of Orquestrando a Vida, this week. He grew up in Campos and studied piano here as a child before going off t...

Brazil: Week 10 - Advanced Students as Teachers, and Special Education

6 May 2013

Keane Southard

An advanced oboe student giving a lesson outside I was able to sit down last week with Luis Mauricio Carneiro , who is co-founder of Orquestrando a Vida , and conductor of the top orchestra of the program, the Orquestra Sinfonica Mariuccia Ia...

Brazil: Weeks 8 and 9 - Concerts, Carnaval, and Sickness

29 Apr 2013

Keane Southard

View from my apartment in Campos With this post, I'll be caught up now here on the blog and back to a once-a-week posting routine. I'm combining the past two weeks into a single post because they have been relatively uneventful. Last week, I ...

Brazil: Week 7 - Arrival in Campos

22 Apr 2013

Keane Southard

Campos: my city, my love. Campos dos Goytacazes (or just "Campos" for short, as most people call it), where I am spending the next two months working with " Orquestrando a Vida " (Orchestrating Life,) is quite a different city than Rio de Jan...

Brazil: Week 6 - Last week in Rio

19 Apr 2013

Keane Southard

I've fallen behind on my goal to put up a new blog post each week, thanks to difficulties finding an apartment and getting internet access in it here in Campos, but I'll save the whole story for another post. Time to catch up, starting with my la...

Brazil: Week 5 - More Visits to ASM in Rio

1 Apr 2013

Keane Southard

This week I made 3 visits to nucleos of A ção Social Pela Música (Social Action through Music-ASM) here in Rio. Two to the Complexo da Tijuca nucleo, and one to the Complexo do Alemão nucleo. Flute sectional at the Complexo da Tijuc...

Brazil: Week 4 - First Visit to ASM in Rio

25 Mar 2013

Keane Southard

View of Dona Marta from the Botafogo neighborhood After making my first ever all Portuguese-language phone call to a stranger (I was quite proud, as this is hard enough for me in English), I set up my first visit to an El Sistema-inspired nucle...

Brazil: Week 3 - Concerts and Exploring Rio

18 Mar 2013

Keane Southard

This week, with pretty much all the bureaucratic things over with, I was finally able to get out and hear some good Brazilian music! Last week I did go to my first concerts here in Brazil, but the first was an organ recital by a Frenchman playing...

Brazil: Week Two-Bureaucracy, Thunderstorms, and Higher Education

11 Mar 2013

Keane Southard

Today marks two weeks in Brazil. Most of this past week was spent dealing with bureaucratic things, which are a doozy in this country. I'll leave those for the end of this post, in case you rather read about the less mundane things that happened...

Latest News 5/18/13

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