LivMusic

Headphones

Craig Morris — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:15:39 +0000

I am sitting here listening to the music of my friend, Michael Ward-Bergeman on his MySpace page. It is fantastic music, but cranking it on the living room speakers would have less than ideal consequences considering it is almost midnight as I write this (I have a whole house full of people that need to [...]

A Morning with Maxwell Davies

Craig Morris — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:22:31 +0000

This morning I had coffee with Peter Maxwell Davies. Well, not the real Maxwell Davies, but with his music. Specifically, I had coffee with a brash 19 year old version of him who had the gall (thankfully) to write a compact hard driving Sonata that pushed the bounds of what is possible on the instrument, [...]

The bigger the cowhorn…

Craig Morris — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:02:21 +0000

I was doing some research on H.K. Gruber’s Aerial tonight. Specifically, I was looking into the cowhorn required in the piece — how one might acquire said cow horn and what might be involved in actually playing such a thing — when I came across this Wiki page. There isn’t much information here, but I [...]

More Oldies…

Craig Morris — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:33:31 +0000

As you can see, I have just re-posted the article Dueling with Pinchas: Building Strength for the Brandenburg and Beyond. A few people have written me about this article, so here it is, back by popular demand. Let me know if there are any other articles any of you are looking for. [...]

Dueling with Pinchas: Building Strength for the Brandenburg and Beyond

Craig Morris — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:29:16 +0000

My first year as Principal Trumpet in the Chicago Symphony had enough big repertoire in it to tantalize, terrorize, and titillate anyone with aspirations of sitting in that chair. It just so happens that I was anyone. It never really felt like sitting, however; more like roasting, but that is a story for another time… [...]

Eventful Day

Craig Morris — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:22:17 +0000

As I sit here waiting for the radio feature to play on KALW, (in case you haven’t heard, there will be an hour long interview/special on me and my music on KALW San Francisco public radio tonight at 8pm PDT. To hear it, visit this page and select “Listen Live”) I am struck by what [...]

Reviving the Oldies

Craig Morris — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:36:14 +0000

One of the things involved in the site redesign that I did in late July is moving all of the old articles over into the new site. Most of them are already here, but a few haven’t made the move. I received a request for the Stamping It Out series, so those are [...]

Stamping It Out (Part III)

Craig Morris — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:09:13 +0000

If you began the Stamp routine when I first posted Stamping It Out (part I), you may be wondering why you have wasted your time on all this silliness while you could have actually been getting something accomplished in your practice routine. Don’t worry, that is normal. I felt the same way when I first [...]

Stamping It Out (Part II)

Craig Morris — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:57:43 +0000

If you have been playing the Stamp Warm-Up for the first time over the last couple of weeks, you are probably either already feeling some benefit from it or you are cursing the day you ever started this exercise. If you are in the latter group, take heart; it will get better with time, and [...]

Stamping It Out (Part I)

Craig Morris — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:07:04 +0000

When it comes to establishing a daily routine and warm up, trumpet players are all over the map. In spite of this fact, the Stamp Warm-Up routine has found its way into almost every player’s routine at some point. Usually, it seems that people have just been introduced to one fragment of the routine, or [...]

Thank You Fred Mills

Craig Morris — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:06:06 +0000

I woke this morning to the tragic and shocking news that Fred Mills, former cornerstone of the Canadian Brass and Trumpet Professor at the University of Georgia, was killed last night in a car accident. I never had the pleasure of meeting Fred. He was one of those people looming in the trumpet community who [...]

Cabrillo in the Rear-View Mirror

Craig Morris — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:50:13 +0000

Here I am — once again blogging from the airplane, thumbing my way across my tiny virtual keyboard, able now to reflect on what was an unpredictable, edgy, adventurous, and successful music festival, a festival that defies conventional classical music world logic, that challenges its audience and orchestra in unimaginable ways, and in so doing, [...]

Whirly Tubes and Bloogles

Craig Morris — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 22:24:28 +0000

After writing about the spinning tubes used in Brett Dean’s Moments of Bliss and being unable to secure the actual name for the tube, I posted the question to my friends on Facebook. One of them wrote back with a link to a page about the “Bloogle Resonator”, so I visited this [...]

And we’re off…

Craig Morris — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:13:30 +0000

If someone wanted to find me in Santa Cruz, they could do worse than to go to Lulu Carpenter’s and look behind any latte they see. Yes, I am back here again this morning after a fun, but grueling night of rehearsing, enjoying another beautiful latte, and doing research. Research, you may ask? [...]

A Return to Lulu Carpenter’s

Craig Morris — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:21:25 +0000

I have arrived in Santa Cruz and headed straight to my favorite coffee house, Lulu Carpenter’s: latte art, free Wifi, great ambience… What’s not to love! The festival is now just a few hours from the first full orchestra rehearsal, just enough time to have an amazing latte, look at a couple of things in my [...]

Oddities and Aberrations

Craig Morris — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:05:57 +0000

I woke up early today to a foggy and cool Northern California morning, my persistent body clock informing me that it was not 6am (as the clock indicated), but rather 9am (the time on the east coast). My mind tried to reason with it, but my body was having none of it, so I [...]

Plane Practicing & Blogging from the Tray Table

Craig Morris — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:03:17 +0000

After 4 hours of score and part study on the plane — with my eyes starting to cross and my brain showing signs of overheating — I decided it was time for a change, so once again my handy iPhone comes out to blog. It is still amazing to me that I will be able [...]

Copland. Coffee. Radio

Craig Morris — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:43:56 +0000

I was listening to the radio this morning – The radio? Yes. Not your iPod or computer? No, the radio. An actual radio. With a knob In the car? No, at home. They make them for the home? Yes. Do you have to pay for it? No, it’s free. What’s it like? It’s like an iPod where someone else picks the music. Weird. No, it’s actually pretty cool, [...]

Desolation Wilderness

Craig Morris — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:37:06 +0000

If I were to choose any trumpet concerto to sit and listen to, just for the sake of enjoyment, I believe I would choose Desolation Wilderness, the piece that has been occupying real estate on my music stand for quite some time now. The reason I would sit and listen to it isn’t because [...]

D Trumpet Disorder

Craig Morris — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 04:35:43 +0000

The Cabrillo Festival (which is discussed in more detail in the post, New Trends for New Music) starts in one week, which means I am in the throes of final preparation right now. This year, as every year, I am wondering how I am going to get everything learned in time, especially with a [...]