Last Sunday I gave my senior composition recital at CMU, featuring The Letter of Jesse Givens.  The work is a set of four songs for high lyric baritone and small orchestra.  If I could do it all over again I would set the whole thing in a different key; frankly, the scoring is sub-par and the singing is if-y in many places.  For sheer compositional ingenuity and artistic sensibility, however, I am quite pleased with myself.

You can read a little bit about Jesse Givens and listen to the pieces on the the main page (click on the banner above). 

Also news: the Aachener Kammerchor has recorded "Set Me As A Seal", and will also be taking the piece to a festival contest of some kind.  I'm very much looking forward to hearing the results!

This past week American composer Tom Cipullo visited us at CMU.  I and a number of the other vocal students performed some of his songs--some of which were very exciting, some of which were very beautiful, all of which were very interesting.  I also took a lesson with Mr. Cipullo and I must say he's a gifted teacher.  He confirmed my own opinions about the Jesse Givens song set--that there are some big kinks to work out, mostly in my scoring, but that the artistic sensibility and the intellect in the writing is quite sound and very enjoyable.  I have also officially been labeled: I am now a romantic composer.  So there we are.  A big thank you to Mr. Cipullo for his time, Melissa Givens for permission to set her husband's text, and to everyone at CMU who helped make my recital possible.  It was a powerful day.

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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

I now have a myspace online:

http://www.myspace.com/benjaminlaurmusic

For all of your myspace needs!

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Monday, July 13, 2009

Fantastic news.  I'm now an internationally performed composer!  So wow internet, apparently you have a valid use.  A choir director in Aachen, Germany was putting together a group of various settings of the Song of Solomon text(s), found my "Set Me As a Seal" here on my website and went ahead and programmed it for the 2009 Aachener Chorbiennale Festival.  If you visit their webpage here (http://www.aachener-kammerchor.de/) and click on "Repertoire" you will find me listed under "Traditionelle Chormusik."

Since then another German chorus director who was at the festival and enjoyed the piece has written me asking with which publisher he can purchase my music.  I sent him another 2 octets ("Aehd wishes for the cloths of heaven" & "Crossing the Bar") and wished him all the best in performance!

Let this be a lesson, kids.  Maintain your websites!

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Monday, June 1, 2009

Also new: http://www.benjaminlaur.com/leprofesseur.htm

This is a site I'm in the midst of setting up for an ongoing project: my love affair with pop music.  Using the pseudonym Le Professeur I've been writing and recording rock, pop, indie and folk music for a few years.  None of the recordings are anywhere near professional quality, but it's a favorite hobby of mine and a lot of my friends seems to like some of the stuff (how's that for a sentence with too many qualifiers?), so, here it is:

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Sunday, May 31, 2009

Lots of news today.  The new website is online!  Thanks for coming to check it out.  Please enjoy the recordings and scores if they interest you. 

I am now charging a fee for all new commissions.  If I have already spoken with you about a piece, don't worry, there will be no fee for what we have discussed.  New pieces from this point forward, however, will be written for a commission fee, to be decided between composer and commissioner and based on several factors (length of piece, deadline, size of ensemble, etc.).  I will work with you to find an acceptable, appropriate fee.  You pay your accompanist and your teacher; you should pay your composer as well.  If I write a piece for you, it is yours--you have a piece of art forever dedicated as you like and commissioned in your name!

In vocal world, the news is that Don Giovanni will be the CMU Opera production this coming spring.  I have been cast as one of the Don Giovanni's, along with fellow baritone Thomas Walkenhorst (congratulations Tom and fellow castmates!). 

I have posted all the new recordings from the performances of my music this past spring semester at CMU (Songs of Love & Attrition; Aehd wishes for the cloths of heaven; Set Me As A Seal; nachtlied; city music; Jungle Dance: that girl can scat; Shoe Shopping).  Also written this past spring were Superheroes! (for Patrick Booth & Evan Pauken, and for which unfortunately I have no recording at this time), Lauren's Christmas Songbook (a group of songs for Soprano & Piano, and for which I will soon be posting midi realizations), and Crossing the Bar (commissioned by Kyle Cozad, and for which I have posted a very rough read-through performed by some volunteers to whom I am extremely grateful).  To all performers: thank you all very, very much!  This past semester was a wonderful time for me, and I owe you all.  Drinks on me when I'm rich (ha).