I’m happy to now be allowed to share with you the news that my lovely wife, Crystal Kurek, will be playing the leading lady, Sarah Brown, in the musical Guys and Dolls! I think she’s perfect for it (and vice versa). It will play November 8 – 23, 2024 at The Arts Center of Cannon […]

Big reveal! There have been a few surprises since I last wrote, the most fun of which was seeing the cover art for my new album, just below. The album won’t be released until early 2025, though. The tree in the photo is “The Major Oak of Sherwood Forest,” which is the subtitle of the […]

This entry comes, yet again, while straining to meet a deadline in my “small business” (very small, meaning just me) as a freelance classical composer. I am working almost non-stop to edit the players’ parts for my new symphony to be recorded Sept. 7 and 8. But I’m confident that with some more elbow grease […]

Hilltop is back in the symphony business! Below, you can hear the long-delayed completion of the last (fourth) movement of my new third symphony. Scroll down or read your way there. This mockup is virtual but sounds pretty realistic and is paired with some images, by request, but for me it seems better just to […]

Wow, the last week was one for the books. Since our ballet was a collaboration featuring spellbinding choreography plus love outpoured for the title character (the real Raffaella and her family), it feels not too terribly immodest for me to say I was honored and privileged to have a part in what was nothing less […]

Today is our 14th wedding anniversary, and this year it falls on a Wednesday. A few times the 19th has fallen on a day I had to be out of town, and this year it falls on a day when Crystal is in tech week (rehearsals every day) for her show. We simply agree to […]

The Hilltop bunnies I mentioned on May 8 have been out in force since that first one I spotted and told you about. I got a snapshot from inside our kitchen window of this little critter standing by the patio, and Crystal got some videos of it washing its little face by licking its paws […]

This time I will be my briefest ever. Not much to tell. The last two weeks have mostly consisted of me sitting at my computer preparing and editing the players’ parts for the upcoming ballet, Raffaella, A Fairytale Ballet. The string parts were done and sent to the orchestra a couple of weeks ago, and […]

Time has flown by since I last wrote here two weeks ago. “Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.” That little saying was told to me in a very serious and thoughtful tone (which made it even funnier) by one of my mentors, the famous and then elderly conductor and composer Lucas […]

For the last two weeks my nose may have been kept to the grindstone editing music, but it has also been smelling fragrances from our back garden. I went out and took these photos of our clematis, which decided to bloom early this year. Spectacular! But again, after some days of reaching 80o F outside, […]