Saturday, May 29, 2010

Welcome!

I've made a couple attempts at blogging, but this is the first time I'm doing it on a personal level. In October, I will perform a recital made of song settings of the poetry of Walt Whitman. I wanted to start this blog to chronicle the process of putting the recital together. I thought this being Whitman's birthday week, it was the perfect time to launch this blog and begin my public journey with this music and poetry.

I call this "The Year of Whitman" because it is a year from now that I hope to give the final presentation of this recital in New York as part of the celebration of the poet's birth. While that is still up in the air, I'm keeping it as a goal and my fingers crossed!

Obviously with a performance set for October, I have already decided on the songs that will appear on the program. One of the first posts I'll put up here will take you through my thoughts as I decided on the set-up of the program and which poems I would feature. Following that I hope to start with a discussion of the poetry, taking one poem a day and talking about my thoughts on the interpretation of the poem. Once I have worked through these poems, I'll approach the music and look at how my interpretation of the poem works with the composer's and how I'll look at resolving any differences. Throughout these discussions, I'll talk about other happenings related to the recital: venues, rehearsals, program adjustments, and other bumps and little victories along the way.

My hope is that this blog will serve as an outlet for me to get my thoughts out in the open while at the same time allowing a discussion of those thoughts with whomever wishes to offer a constructive piece of advice...if anyone actually reads along! Ultimately, I hope it will serve to promote some great American music and American poetry.