Welcome back to the Hilltop, where the deer are jumping, the flowers (at least some of them) are still blooming, and the kitty cats meowing. On Monday, I was sitting on the back patio reading through the mail that just came, and a skunk walks up to me, not six feet away, then waddles out into the yard and on up into the meadow behind our house! Whew! Too bad I didn’t have my phone so I could get a photo of that critter.

Crystal has been through many days of living on little sleep, going in the morning to teach school all day and then driving over an hour straight to Columbia, Tennessee for her Anastasia rehearsals, with a bite of food along the way. Last weekend they had great opening weekend for the show, with so many talented cast members. (Crystal is the Romanov princess at the far left in this photo.) We all loved the show and performance. More happy news is that somewhere in there, on a Sunday night audition, she snagged the lead role in yet another upcoming show at another theater, which will play in December. I cannot yet say which one, but the month that it is to be performed might supply a hint.

I was very happy to hear since I last wrote that my Concertino for Celesta and Orchestra: “Fairy Dreams” is to receive several performances by the Buffalo Philharmonic this fall. Buffalo is one of the top American orchestras these days, conducted by arguably the top woman conductor in the country, JoAnn Falletta. I will probably go up there Dec. 16 to hear it and take a bow. I have an old friend or two there I would love to see, and I’ll take my recent CD’s with me to give to the conductor, in hopes of a symphony No. 2 or No. 3 performance by them some day.

Three days from now, I will be winging my way on a plane to Washington, D.C. to speak at the annual national conference of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars on the topic of “Truth in Music,” and I will share a panel discussion with the well-known Robert Royal, who will present on Truth in Literature. I fear my talk is too simplistic for this crowd, but sometimes the simple can be profound, I can only hope. I have an old childhood friend there who is now an eminent D.C. attorney and promises to take me (as his guest) to dinner at a place there called Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak, and Crab, whose price tag makes you happy that someone is treating you (that day is my birthday). I look forward to seeing him. He was brilliant as a boy and always beat me in chess. But the other day he reminded me that I finally beat him using the notorious chess opening called “The Fried Liver Attack.” He was taken aback and had to go study how to defend against it, as I had fried his liver in only a few moves.

Whilst I further await the collaboration with our ballet choreographer on our new ballet project (scheduled for premiere with dancers in June 2024), I have been hard at work composing the third movement of my new Symphony No. 3: “English.” Each movement also has a subtitle, this one being “The Lady of Shalott.” The third movement of most symphonies is traditionally the scherzo (lighter, dance-like) movement, and I’m happy with the way it is coming along, three minutes in. My inspiration is not only Tennyson’s famous poem by that title but the three paintings of the Lady in pre-Raphaelite style by J. W. Waterhouse. From those paintings came a desire to make this a colorful orchestration and to capture the sweeping flow of the stream upon which her boat floats down to Camelot, and her emotional death song along the way. Otherwise, the music does not attempt a narrative of her story.

Meanwhile, I have been working behind the scenes toward the new Dear Miss Barrett production, to be performed at Center for the Arts in Murfreesboro, TN in early March 2024. That is my musical theater show about the Brownings (click HERE for more information). Namely, all the cast and crew have to have a copy of the unpublished script and musical scores, a dozen of which I have now printed at home and assembled in black 3-ring binders. Some actors will, no doubt, download the pdf and use their tablets. I also have re-assembled a box full of many of the props used in the previous production, like feather pens for the Brownings to use to write their letters and many other small items. Casting should begin soon. Please feel free to contact me for audition information, if you are interested in acting in this show, and I will refer you to the director.

That’s all the news that’s fit to print now, so please come back in two weeks to see if there is any more!