News

We have successfully endured two months of house renovations, but Emma and the girls moved out today. (Well, just until the new stairs are usable.) When complete, my work area/studio will make composition surroundings much easier in the future.

Later this month I will be in Perth for the première of Nostradamus, the musical by Ziggy De Voight that I have orchestrated. I will be conducting the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, soloists and the West Australian Opera Chorus. It is more of an opera than a musical in my view, written in a very romantic style. The day after that I have a "pops" concert to conduct with the W.A.S.O. in Kalgoorlie.

I am now using the computer music program Finale for music engraving, and have progressed far enough to be discovering several things in it that could or should be improved - I am keeping a "sticky" note on the screen in a very small font with a list. And that list is getting longer and longer! No doubt that it is a far more sophisticated a program than Mosaic; but while I do not miss the many irritating problems in the latter, I do miss the few things that were better or slicker than Finale. Using Finale means I can send files by email to Southern Music. For that reason Sibelius was not an alternative. I expect that program has its problems too.