If anyone out there is still reading this blog, you may have noticed that it’s been pretty dormant lately. Life has been busy, and just haven’t had time for the sort of recreational writing that I’ve been able to do in the past. But, I’ve just launched a new professional site for myself at davidawells.com, and I’ll be moving all of my music-related blogging activities over there. I’ve already got a few posts up, go check ‘em out! I’ll probably resurrect this blog at some point as a place for my photographs and book reviews, but I have no idea when that’ll be.
Hiatus
Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition
One of the projects that’s keeping me busy these days is the Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition. The competition, founded in 2004, is for young women bassoon players who are either from or in school anywhere in the Americas. The repertoire changes for every competition, but always includes a Vivaldi concerto, an unaccompanied work, and a new piece by a living woman composer. The competition happens every two years, and since the 2010 competition, has been accompanied by the MQVC Bassoon Symposium — three days of masterclasses, recitals, and other activities open to all bassoonists.
The 2012 Competition and Symposium are happening at the University of the Pacific, where Veronica is now the music librarian. Nicolasa Kuster is the bassoon prof. at Pacific, and also the co-founder of MQVC (along with UT-Austin’s Kristin Wolfe Jensen). She invited me to join the organization as Operations Coordinator, and I will also serve as co-host for the 2012 Competition and Symposium.
I created a brand new web site for MQVC, which launched today. Check it out at mqvc.org. The launch marks the announcement of the repertoire, guidelines, and dates for the 2012 Competition. This year’s new piece is Sortilege by Margi Griebling-Haigh, which Barrick Stees will premiere at this summer’s International Double Reed Society Conference. Besides the web site, I’m also managing MQVC’s mailing list, Facebook page and Twitter account (@MQVCBassoon).
As January 2012 approaches, I’ll probably post more here about organizing the event, who will be serving as judges, etc. But, all that information will definitely show up at mqvc.org first.
IDRS Conference
It’s about time I kickstarted my blog again…
Something I’ve been very excited about lately is the fact that my proposal for this summer’s International Double Reed Society Conference has been accepted. I’ll be giving a lecture entitled “Jazz Bassoon: The First 50 Years” on the first day of the conference (it’s one of two simultaneous first events, actually). You can find the whole schedule here. I’m a little worried about attendance, as some people may not show up until later that day. But on the other hand, I’ll have my bit out of the way quickly so I can enjoy the rest of the conference without worrying about it. I’m also glad that in this sort of venue, I’ll have the chance to show photographs and play recordings, two things I wasn’t really able to include in my dissertation.
This summer’s conference is being held at Arizona State, which I’ve only seen briefly from airplanes since I graduated. It’ll be nice to be on campus again, but I imagine that things will have changed enough to at least mildly shock me. I’m definitely planning to pay a visit to the Four Peaks Brewery, which I’ve missed, but it seems there are a couple of new brewpubs in Tempe that I’m eager to investigate, too.








