Monday, September 30, 2013

Explorations

Yesterday, on a friend's recommendation, I visited composerscircle.com, a site that features a different (usually) living composer every day.  I'm not sure how long they have been operating; the online archive goes back to May 2012.  But it's an impressive site, and well worth the time to check out.

One thing that's impressed me is how wide the stylistic range is.  If you were hoping for guidance about any particular direction in which things might be headed, the only reasonable conclusion is they're going in all directions at once, which makes this a particularly exciting time to be writing.

Another thing that's impressive is the wide range of levels and backgrounds represented.  There are composers with major awards and performances by big-name ensembles, and there are composers who are just starting music school, not always at places with famous composition programs.  Most of the names are new to me, which means I'm going to be back; it's not possible or reasonable to expect to take it all in in one visit.  The quality is uniformly high.

The only slightly negative thing about the site is it's not very easy to browse; within a year you have to page forward or back month by month.  Be aware that every page will begin playing music or video immediately upon loading; you'll want to check your volume settings before navigating to the page.

Enjoy!