Dear All,

I thought that I’d post a list of places to follow me and my adventures. Of course, since most of you reading this are already subscribed to my website, I’m preaching to the choir…but please, if you know of anyone who may be interested in my posts or music, please pass this information along.

I’d like to start with pointing y’all to this lovely write-up about my upcoming Dec. 5 Serial Underground concert at Cornelia St. Cafe. This was written by Jed Distler, Composers Collaborative, Inc. Artistic Diector:

http://www.composerscollab.org/newsletters/newsletter_2010_12_05.html

Of great interested, and of great relief, is the fact that after months of inactivity and technical difficulty, my RSS feed is now up and running again! Thanks to the technical savvy and brilliance (not to mention infinite patience from dealing with me…) of Mimi Kantor, one can now subscribe to my RSS feed here:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/dspaneas

Speaking of subscribing, you can also get my posts and news on Twitter. I use Twitter as purely a news feed to promote my blog, concert, events, and those of my colleagues. I also will post the occasional inspirational quote and interesting news (arts news) story. I promise you, no political rantings or ‘checking in’ at Starbucks…

http://twitter.com/dspaneas

If you haven’t seen my youtube channel, you should take a look. At the moment, it is small, yet mighty–over the coming months, I will be posting everything from performance clips to videos of some my released music to short films that I composed the music for. I am also always on the lookout for film/video artists to collaborate with:

http://www.youtube.com/user/dspaneas

There is always the oldie but (still mostly) goodie, the one that started it all:

www.myspace.com/demetriusspaneas

I will be posting links here on my blog/RSS feed as these platforms are updated and new ones become available.

Thank you all for your continued support. Wishing you all a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

Yours,

Demetrius

I haven’t written a blog about the condition of music and musicians for a while–darn time I did.

I have, as you who follow my musings know all too well, written many-a-blog complaining about traveling with instruments. A couple of years ago, I even went so far as to (briefly) consider a focus change and only travel with ‘a flute and a laptop; that’s it!’. This particular comment was in response to an issue I had in Moscow where although my alto sax was perfectly small enough to fit into the required space in the overhead compartment, I was given a great deal of difficulty because it was considered too heavy–mind you, this was an international flight, and alto sax cases are not particularly heavy; they were looking for a bribe…

A couple of months ago, I had to deal with the issue of an American carrier who will remain nameless (it was Continental..don’t tell anyone…) that forced me to either buy a ticket for my tenor, or pay an extra few hundred dollars (as an extra bag) to check it in luggage. Luckily, colleagues from the festival in Poland that I was playing at were able to get me a tenor (a good one!) for my performance.

And there are plenty of stories about how baggage handlers handle instruments…

Of course, we are all now aware of the new TSA security measures that are causing so much controversy. To be honest, I LIKE security–I have no problem having my bags–even my instrument, as long as I’m the one handling it–inspected. I travel a lot to unsafe regions, and I want to know that the plane and passengers are as safe as possible. Now, I’m not a fan of ‘invasive pat-downs’, but I don’t think that the full-body scanner is safe–on another trip to Moscow, I went through one and became very disoriented and nauseous…I’ll take the pat-down.

Musicians also have to be responsible and get documentation for their instruments BEFORE they travel. Go to customs at a US port of entry/exit, get a stamped certificate–it takes a few minutes, is free, and saves you at border crossings from paying unnecessary fees, including bribes…

The TSA measures are not the problem here. The problem is traveling with instruments. A colleague posted this today:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/tomserviceblog/2010/nov/17/musicians-uk-border-agency-rules

This is ridiculous…not only for this and other academic situations, but in how this may effect musicians touring in general.

In the last years, with the demise of the physical record store–and, physical recordings–musicians have relied more and more on live performance to make money. We sell our recordings at shows, that’s it. We tour to make money.

Now, since the ‘hubbification’ (do you like that word? I just made it up…) of the world’s airports, one will almost inevitably have stops, if not layovers, in hub cities. What if a group has a one night layover in London on their way to say, India?  Will musicians not be allowed to take their instruments into the country? Would you want your $80,000 cello put in an airport locker in a foreign country…?

Since most classical or jazz musicians can’t make much money on recording sales anymore (not that most of us ever did; but the paradigm for recordings has changed with the digital age–again inevitable–go with the flow, man) we must make our money on performances. For US musicians in the ‘higher arts’, our audiences are rather small and in select areas–mostly cities, scattered across the globe. If we can’t travel with our instruments to European cities, what are we going to do?

The instrument problem is also prevalent domestically, although strangely less than in the supposedly more liberal and educated European countries (he says with a cheeky grin…). In the last 9 years, the biggest instrument that I had tried to (and succeeded) take on-board a flight was a bass clarinet, which is slightly bigger than the allowed size, but wasn’t given a second thought. They knew what it was, and it fit, so no problem. I however wouldn’t try anything that big now.

More and more restrictions have completely influenced my playing career, in so far as instrument choices. It makes it very difficult to have to change your preferred instrumentation for a concert tour or for your repertory, but at least I have choices–what do the cellists and tubists do…?

Personally, I love trains. A great, relaxing way to travel and see the countryside; however, I don’t want to take 3 days to get to Chicago to play a concert…

So, I don’t know what is going to happen. I actually don’t think the administrators of these rules have any idea, either. We may have to sit out of the game for a while until the dust settles and they (whomever ‘they’ may be) come up with a situation that allows us to to practice our profession.

I’m up for any recommendations or words of wisdom…

Yours always,

Demetrius

After an overnight train from St. Petersburg to Moscow...don't I look pleasant?

Dear All,

I will be presenting the premier of my new composition Giuffre Sketches as part of the Composers Collaborative, Inc. Serial Underground Series at the Cornelia Street Cafe in NYC on December 5, 2010 at 6PM. I will be playing clarinet and tenor and baritone saxophones, and assisted by CCi’s Artistic Director Jed Distler on piano.

The program notes on Giuffre Sketches:

Giuffre Sketches is dedicated to the memory of my teacher, jazz musician and composer Jimmy Giuffre, who passed in 2008. It uses motives and phrases from some of Jimmy’s lesser-known compositions as source material for both the written and improvisational elements. The work also uses two well-known pieces that are interwoven to create a structural element: the folk song The Train and the River, and Jimmy Van Heusen’s Darn That Dream. Both of these pieces have special meanings for me, most especially the Van Heusen, which was the basis for one of my first conceptual epiphanies while I was working with Jimmy.

Also on the concert, composer/pianist Matt Aucoin premiers his new one-act opera From Sandover, with text adapted from James Merrill’s The Changing Light at Sandover. Directed by Victoria Crutchfield.

It should be quite an evening!

I hope that you can join us!

Composers Collaborative, Inc.

Serial Underground

Cornelia Street Cafe

29 Cornelia Street

Greenwich Village, NY 10014

(212) 989-9319

December 5, 2010 6PM

Happy Friday,

It is with great pleasure that I announce a performance of my piece Angels Praise Thee, for five-part women’s choir by the Polymnia Choral Society under direction of Murray Kidd. This work, composed and premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2007, has had numerous performances on both sides of the Atlantic. My melody was written initially as an instrumental (saxophone quartet, actually) Christmas Carol in the late 80s, and then ‘refound’ and adapted into its present form after I was commissioned by the Russian vocal ensemble Second Breath to create a new a capella piece for female voices. I actually wrote the text late one night on tour, sitting alone in my room in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Here are the program notes and text:

Angels Praise Thee layers various time periods and genres–from Byzantine chanting to the Protestant Hymnal to Barbershop–in order to bring the listener to a state of reminiscence of childhood and Holidays past, even evoking a wistfulness of bygone times. My text implies Gnostic Christianity, an early form of Christianity influenced by and influencing Hellenic philosophy and other Near Eastern religions.

Praise to Thee, Lord (3 times)

Angels praise Thee, Jesu on high
Kneeling to the Glory Divine
Guide us, sing on
Show us the way (Lord, to pray)
Show us to praise Him
All our mortal days

Beings of light, you know the True Mind
Mortals, we, are seeking to find
Guide us, take us
Lead us by hand (to the)
Road that will lead us
To Thy Promised Land

When this mortal skin we have shed (Dear Lamb)
Judge us by the life we have led
Wisdom, Dear Lamb
Our gift from Thee
To sing with Thy Angels
For Eternity

Performance details:

Polymnia Choral Society
A Victorian Christmas
December 4th, 7:30pm
First Congregational Church in Melrose
121 West Foster Street, Melrose, MA
Excerpts from Handel’s Messiah, sacred Christmas carols from Great Britain along with arrangements of popular carols will make this a Holiday event to remember.  Also featured is a work by  Demetrius Spaneas and a world premiere by Polymnia’s own Danforth Larkin.   Bring your whole family to this popular Melrose tradition!

Warmest regards,

Demetrius

Dear Friends,

I have uploaded a new video to youtube. The music is The Old City from my 2010 release Sfumato, and features Galina Parfenova, voice, and yours truly on alto flute.

The video consists of still images from my 2009 tour to Bukhara and Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Photos were taken in the ‘old city’ areas of both cities.

You can purchase The Old City and Sfumato at CD Baby, Amazon, iTunes, or at most digital retailers.

Thank you again for all your support!

Demetrius