Looking Back To Move Ahead

It’s taken nearly two weeks for the buzz of Tuesday night to wear off and allow me to attempt to objectively look back on the evening.

Before going any further, I feel like I need to state unequivocally that this is no epilogue—this project is not done; though, admittedly, we have entered a new chapter.

Tuesday (16 September) was, in fact, a kind of culmination of months’ worth of work. It was an evening to share, discuss, and celebrate music, especially contemporary music, not as some product of locked away and out-of-touch musicians but as the creation of some very human people trying to communicate and connect (with you!) through stories told in words and music. Now that that evening is over, it’s time for us to look back, not only to assess what happened, what worked, and what didn’t, but also to keep the conversation going.

I don’t know about you, but hearing a piece once is never enough for me. Consequently, all performances, along with their introductions, will soon be online for you to revisit, question, and share. We very consciously did not put any of the pieces up beforehand—we wanted you to experience the thrill of hearing a world premiere—but, now that the novelty has been delivered, it’s time to make it meaningful. By going back, you can not only enjoy the brilliant performances once more, you can see them in context on the blog; you can check out the score while you listen; you can read about how the piece and the performance were created while hearing the final result. I sincerely hope you take the opportunity to do so as this kind of immersion is not something that is often available. Moreover, you can continue to question and discuss on your own time and at your own pace. Be assured, the rest of the musicians and I are still fully engaged and will answer any questions that you post to the site.

As I mentioned above, all of the performances and introductions will soon be online, along with the previously-unseen, fully marked-up, player scores so that you can truly connect the dots to the sound. Shortly after, we will also be releasing a series of short interviews where the players and I reflect on the project.

But, before we do all that, we want to hear from you! Let us know what you think worked, what didn’t. Is there something that you wanted to see but didn’t? Something that was there but unnecessary? All comments, positive and negative welcome. There will definitely be a round two and we want to it to be better!