Dear All,

It is with great honor and pleasure that I share with you the news that I have been selected for the Fulbright Specialist Roster for the next five years, beginning in 2012. This grant/award/appointment is administered by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FSB), the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs (ECA), and the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES).

As you all know, the main focus of my musical career is in the arena of cultural diplomacy. My work over recent years has been to bring American music to the far reaches of the globe, connect with local artists and cultural and academic institutions, and create an artistic dialogue that benefits artists, students, and audiences on both sides. Selection to the Fulbright Specialist Roster brings me better opportunity to achieve these goals by giving me the full support of the organizations mentioned above.

I plan on continuing my work in Eurasia, most especially in the former Soviet Union and China, and hope to eventually expand my work to include projects in South Asia, the Middle East, and South America.

I am proud of the fact that the US Department of State does take the idea of cultural diplomacy seriously and that it supports such programs as the Fulbright. I am also always pleased that many of the countries across the globe are receptive to such an exchange of culture.

It means that we all just might have a chance of making a difference…a real, peaceful difference. It all begins with dialogue and education.

Yours always,

Demetrius

Me with young students in Tajikistan

Me giving a master class at the Baku Academy of Music, Azerbaijan

Greetings All,

I am delighted to announce that I have two (premiere) performances–in the great white north of New England–of my composition A Child Sings at Thanksgiving for solo guitar. This work was written for Boston-based guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan and the New Lullaby Project.

A Child Sings at Thanksgiving was adapted and rewritten for guitar from the final selection from my Songs for Children, composed for solo piano in 1994. By presenting the Thanksgiving Hymn We Gather Together in an abstracted and fleeting way, the work perhaps evokes an adult’s distant memories of holidays past.

The performances on December 10 and 18 will take place in Cambridge, MA and Nashua, NH respectively. I am very happy that I will be in attendance for the December 10 premiere.

Information on the concerts here:

#1 – Saturday, Dec. 10 at 8pm
Wild Night of New Lullabies in Cambridge
FB Event (click here)
Tickets & Information: www.BrownPaperTickets.com/event/212596 or call: 1-800-838-3006 (event 212596)
New School of Music
25 Lowell Street
Cambridge, MA

#2 – Sunday, Dec. 18 at 3pm  
Studio 99 Nashua, NH
FB Event (click here)
Tickets & Information:  www.BrownPaperTickets.com/event/214063 or call: 1-800-838-3006 (event 214063)
Studio 99 Nashua
17 Factory Street
Nashua, NH

Thank you all for your continued support!

Demetrius

All things must pass…

Here I sit, writing the final blog of my Flushing Town Hall composer residency, looking out the window of the ‘jail cell’ (the room which was actually a jail cell, now the green room of the performance hall) looking out the window over hustling and bustling Flushing with its Chinese restaurants and Korean markets. I can’t barely believe that this three month period has passed…tempus fugit…

It has been a wonderful experience. Director Ellen Kodadek and the rest of the Flushing Town Hall staff have been kind and gracious with their space and time. The composition residency, sponsored by Exploring the Metropolis in collaboration with Con Edison, is a fantastic program which I can’t praise enough.

And I even have lots to show for my time beyond an enhanced palate for Chinese cuisine…

The smallest of my three composition projects was Soho Sophisticate for solo saxophone, which was premiered on November 20th as part of a collaborative concert between me, Benoit Granier, and Paul Miller/DJ Spooky in Soho. This work will get a second showing on my December 4th concert at the Cornelia Street Cafe.

While it started out as a transcription and a side project for my residency concert in Februrary, Autumn Yearning has become a major piece in its own right, potentially dwarfing even Roots Music in length, clocking in at a whopping 14 minutes! This work, for clarinet, viola, and piano, is positioned to be the title track of my next CD which I hope to release by (wait for it…) autumn (of course) of 2012. Explorations and negotiations are being made into labels and distribution, and I plan to have this piece recorded soon after its February 18 premiere. More on this later…

The main focus of my residency was the research and creation of Roots Music, the work which will be premiered as part of the Beijing Irish Modern Music Festival in March, 2012. I spent much of time meeting with traditional musicians and researching everything from the traditional music of China and Ireland to individual instruments, including spending much time mastering the Chinese dizi flute. My goal was not to complete the composition, but to have all of the preliminary work finished to begin the composing process during the winter break from my college teaching. This I have accomplished to the fullest extent my choosing all of my source material for the work, and also by mapping out the entire structure of the piece (which I completed today!).

Since the piece is about the primordial musical connection that flows between all cultures, I have taken traditional/popular music from Ireland, China, and the US as source material for the piece. I can’t give away too much about the process or structure or final product, but I can give you these three videos that may get your musical taste buds a-salivating…

How’s that for starters?

Now, the work begins on constructing the piece for it to be sent off to China for early January.

The honor of the Flushing Town hall residency gave me the time, the space, and the opportunity to research and create all of this music. I am truly indebted to Con Edison and Exploring the Metropolis and can only hope that this wonderful program thrives to support other composers for years to come.

Until soon,

Demetrius

ps–I never did encounter any of the supposed ghosts that haunt Flushing Town Hall, and especially this jail cell in which I’m working in now…well, maybe as I pack up for the day I’ll get lucky…