Afterthoughts

Wanted to say a quick note of thank you to the experience in Denver with the Colorado Symphony and EarShot. It's been two weeks and I'm still replaying the learning experience and new ideas that stemmed up from the whole process. It was a valuable experience to see musicians, conductors and composers work together to give birth to something new and beautiful. It was very precious to see the communications and feedbacks between the different parties, and to learn to observe the creation and execution of a new artwork from different perspectives. There are many details involved and it is not easy, but all the hard work is well worth the result because one of the most valuable asset in a genre is what's upcoming, young and alive.

A big thank you to the composer mentors, Robert Beaser, Derek Bermel, and Roberto Sierra for their guidance and mentoring through the process, conductor Delta David Gier for his feedback and dedicated work in interpretation, and the CSO and artistic director Alberto Gutierrez for their support. What's also exciting is to see a pretty good turn out from the audience part. The audience were enthusiastic when they entered the Boettcher Concert Hall with their smiling faces, looking eager to found out what's in store for them in these new work-in-progress. That's a testament to their respect, interest and openness to discover new voices. Also wanted to thank Lyn Liston and Ed Harsh for coming out there to give us mentoring and a presentation. The business side of composing is very important and the conversations and morning breakfasts (those were refreshing starts and one of the best memories!) were rewarding and informational.

Lastly, I wanted to thank my composer colleagues--what a great group we had! We were very encouraging and helpful with each other throughout the whole process, and were open to share our artistic comments with each other. Something to admire working with such a positive group.

-Angel