The latest…

Hey folks,

Just a quick update from out here in San Diego where I played last night on the Fresh Sound series in a beautiful little warehouse. I just saw a review that came out – and I loved this closing line in particular:

“I had my doubts about how interesting a night of solo percussion could be– but I have to admit that the performance was amazing…”

You can read the entire review here and here are a couple pictures from the show:

Next stop, LA for one more performance of Christopher Cerrone’s Memory Palace at theItalian Cultural Institute!

I’m out in Southern CA for the next couple of weeks playing solo shows in Carlsbad, San Diego and Los Angeles. One of the main things I’m doing out here is giving the West Coast premiere of Christopher Cerrone’s excellent piece for percussion and electronics, Memory Palace. Chris describes the work as a ‘kind of paean to places and people that have deeply affected me’. Each of the five movements represents a deeply meaningful part of his life and many of them feature field recordings that he made of things like cricket choruses and wind chimes. It’s an incredibly beautiful piece and I’m thrilled to be playing it! You can find more info about each event over on my calendar, but here’s a quick listing:

Carlsbad Music Festival
WHEN: Saturday, September 21st at 1:45pm
WHERE: St. Michael’s Chapel in Carlsbad
$10 advance tickets that get you in to both my show AND What’s Next? Ensemble or $5 tickets at the door per show.

Fresh Sound Series
WHEN: Tuesday, October 1st at 8pm
WHERE: Bread & Salt (1955 Julian Avenue in San Diego)
$15 general/$10 student tickets available at the door

The Industry LA Invisible Cities Preview Event
WHEN: Saturday, October 5th at 8pm
WHERE: Istituto Italiano di Cultura in LA
FREE admission, but you must send a note to rsvp.iic@esteri.it to RSVP.

If you know me, or if you follow me on facebook or twitter, or even if you check out this blog every once in a while, you probably know that last week I somehow ended up on national TV.

You can read the longer explanation of how I got there, but I’ll give you the Cliff’s Notes. Some friends of mine started this orchestra and choir, they made a YouTube video, it went viral, we played on the Today Show, we were invited to join America’s Got Talent mid-season and then we ended up playing at Radio City Music Hall last Tuesday night. Here’s our final performance on America’s Got Talent:

It was really, on the whole, an amazing experience.Few classical musicians, aside from the superstars, ever get to feel what being part of a real popular music production feels like, and it’s pretty mind-blowing.

Read more…

Brace yourself, because this is a wild one.

Due to an incredible and still unbelievable series of events, you very well might see a certain strikingly handsome percussionist performing live on America’s Got Talent, should you turn on your TV next Tuesday night.

Yes, this is happening.

Let me fill you in. You might remember the 3Penny Chorus and Orchestra from this video - we did a classical version of the pop hit Call Me Maybe. That video went viral and out of nowhere the Today Show called and asked us to come and perform the arrangement live on their show. Check that out here. And then, just to cap the whole thing off, America’s Got Talent got in touch and asked if we would come and audition. The audition went really well and now we’re set to compete live at Radio City on Tuesday night. We won’t be playing Carly Rae Jepsen this time….I can’t tell you exactly what we’re playing, but trust me – it’s just as wonderful.

So – tune in to NBC on Tuesday night at 9pm EST to watch! And then after you do, we need your votes to move on in the competition. You can vote online or by phone - see that website for details.