Reservations are now available for the inaugural concert of the Tobenski-Algera Concert Series’s Spring 2010 re-launch. The concert, at The Duplex’s cabaret theatre in NYC’s West Village, will take place at 9:30pm on Wednesday, January 27, 2010.
The concert will feature new art songs by young and emerging composers, as well as four songs by Obie Award-winning composer Ricky Ian Gordon.
$10 cover & two drink minimum with a reservation; $12 cover & two drink minimum at the door.
Thoughts on this as a possible Tobenski-Algera logo?
![](="http://www.dennistobenski.com/pics/blog/talogo/tabanner5.png" "Possible T-A Logo")
I just learned that I will be at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts from March 29 to April 25, 2010. I’ll be spending my birthday there!
In the meantime, I’ll be rescheduling a few things in that time-frame.
I found out this afternoon that I’ll be in residence again at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Spring 2010! I’m very excited to be going back – I absolutely adored my first residency there, and got so much written. Later this week, I’ll be speaking with the Residency Coordinator to work out exactly when I’ll be going. Joy!
I’ve decided that at least through the end of January, all sales at the Tobenski Music Press are being donated to the Tobenski-Algera Concert Series to help fund our concerts. So get a-buyin’!
I’ve spent some time over the past few days writing two new songs – part of a group of birthday songs for friends. The 8 planned super-short songs are, of course, a part of the Song Album Project (I haven’t forgotten about it!), but will be available in the Tobenski Music Press store as soon as they’re written.
So far, I’ve written songs for my friends Danny Stone and Joel Conarroe (the latter of whom is having a big birthday bash tonight on the East Side), who turned, respectively, 30 and 75. For Danny, I wrote the 1&12frac; minute “Twilight”, on the short poem of the same name by Walt Whitman. And for Joel’s one-minute song, I used another short Whitman poem, “To a Western Boy”.
Six more to go!
Not long after I returned from WY, I was asked to email a copy of the Starfish lyrics to be printed in the program for this past Saturday’s concert. At the same time, I was dealing with the fact that my bathroom ceiling had partially collapsed while I was away, leaving a 4′x2′ hole in the sheet rock above my toilet. So, in my flustered state, I emailed off the wrong copy of the text – a MUCH earlier version that was barely recognizable as the text used in the piece. (Idris and I had spent a considerable amount of time reworking the text together so that it was, as Idris put it, “more musical”, though I saw it less as “more musical” than as “more streamlined” – we removed a number of lines throughout, and replaced a handful of words, as well.)
As a result, there was a considerable amount of confusion during the first few minutes of the performance of Starfish. The confusion in the room was palpable, but slowly dissipated as people abandoned the incorrect text, and just listened, instead. How embarrassing for me, though!
Let that be a lesson – no matter how a-twitter you may be, be sure to check yourself before submitting program notes and texts!
This past Saturday, Melissa Fogarty and Percussia performed Starfish at Pescadero at the Jackson Heights Branch of the Queens Public Library.
This performance made use of the revisions I did for the Coast Guard Academy performance last year, along with some new changes to the percussion part. This time, at the suggestion of Ingrid Gordon, we replaced both the tom-toms and wood blocks with temple blocks, which made the whole piece so much lighter and freer. I’m really happy with the new instrumentation.
Here, for your listening pleasure, is the recording that I made of Starfish at the concert.
Thanks to Missy and Percussia for such a fabulous performance!
Enjoy!
I’m really excited that this Saturday, Percussia will be performing my Starfish at Pescadero at the Jackson Heights Branch of the Queens Public Library! The concert, which takes place at 3:00 pm, will also include works by Scott J. Ordway (one of whose works was performed last year on the Tobenski-Algera Concert Series), Jamie Keesecker, David Roberts, Matthew Welch, and Alejandro Viñao.
These are from a little field trip we took on our last night to the Saloon at the Occidental Hotel.
Group photo right after dinner, at the residence!
Edan Lepucki mugs for the camera while Stephanie Ognar ignores me completely.
Manil Suri.
Ben Fountain and Shannon Fowler, deep in conversation.
Stephanie and Edan.
