Hello All,

I have to apologize for the time that I have been taking between posts; also, most of my posts as of late have been little more than concert or video announcements. My schedule, combined with many a-looming deadline, has taken its toll on my time for writing or updating. Actually, the only reason that I have time to write now is that I decided not to go to a friend’s concert that I was planning on attending–I have to catch-up on everything (including this posting); I hope I’m forgiven…

Also, the insanity of these times pretty much also defines the fact that only two of my woodwind arsenal will probably see the light of day in the next 6 weeks: my Bb clarinet and my tenor sax. This is mostly due to the Women’s Work Concert that I’m preparing for in March, but there are also plenty of other reasons, like playing along with my jazz band students at the college to teach them stylistic improvisation. More on the tenor later…

I have a number of issues that I do want to blog about, including a series that I want to title ‘Jazz: a four-letter word’ which has to do with the state and perception of jazz in the both the artistic and market worlds. Maybe soon…

That being said, I do want to say that I have been uploading videos via youtube, including posting a another Tajik-Jazz collaboration from my time in Tajikistan at the Dushanbe International Jazz Festival. This tune had the ‘working title’ of Joyful Spirit or Joyous Spirit; in my posting, I decided to add ‘Oh’ to this to make it Oh, Joyful Spirit because I think it has more panache.  You can see the new video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-ALoikYmYQ

Now, that being said, I am planing on adding a video page here on my website; this way, I can post my videos and the ones of me (the good ones, anyways)  that others have taken so that they are all on one page and in one place. I hope to do this by next weekend.

Speaking of equipment, the ongoing saga on finding the perfect (for me, anyways) tenor set-up continues. I don’t really get it; I have basically played the exact same equipment (or new versions there of) on all of my horns from Eb clarinet down to baritone sax for like 25 years, all EXCEPT on tenor. Maybe this has to do with the face that I care more about the sound on it because I consider the tenor to be *my* voice. I try things, they work OK for a while, I try other things. Maybe I’m looking for pure, unfettered expression–Hell, I know I am…

So, I went into Rayburn Music when I visited Boston a few weeks back and decided to try some horns–a couple of Mark VIs, a Conn (for fun; would never buy one–I am a Selmer guy), and some new Selmer Reference 36s. There was this one amazing Mark VI, really wonderful–I just didn’t want to pay what they (the people who put it on consignment, not Rayburn; the on-going joke is that only doctors and lawyers, not musicians, can actually afford them). If I sold my Selmer tenor AND baritone, I’d still be shelling-out a couple grand for this horn–it’s ridiculous the inflated price of these horns…so that wasn’t going to happen…

So, then I started experimenting: “alrighty, what can I do to give my Super Action 80II tenor some more resonance?”

I found a Mark VII neck lurking in the store. My original tenor neck was damaged a number of years ago, and even though it was fixed, it was never ‘right’…so I tried other necks, including a solid silver one, but in the end, I wasn’t happy. But this Mark VII neck…now, granted, those of you who are saxophonists are saying “Mark VII? Why?”; I know, but hear me out. The Mark VII wasn’t a horrible horn, just different than a Mark VI. The neck made a huge difference in the body of sound in my horn–made it bigger, deeper. I like it…

To this odd neck change came something more radical: I bought a new mouthpiece…made of WOOD!

Yes, wood. Again, those of you who are saxophonists, and especially those of you who know me and my work on the R&B side of things are probably picking your jaws up from off the ground. I swore for years that metal was the only way to go for a mouthpiece on tenor, but I tried this: a Theo Wanne Gaia 8

The sound was big, real big, and DARK and rich. I didn’t like it at first, and even after I bought it I keep thinking that I’ll hate it, but I like it more and more. For my style of music now, it may be the right color for my voice. And it plays soooo easily…

It’s funny, I went to the store to actually have a ‘lighter’ setup (the Mark VI is an extremely light horn) and ended up with something robust and darker, and heavier. And let’s be honest, I have a funny looking tenor. My horn was overhauled by the great Emilio Lyons, who, when I told him to surprise me as to the color of the pads I wanted, made them electric blue with kelly green build-ups for the keys and black trim. Add to this the fact that the Mark VII neck is a completely different brass mix (and color) than my S-80II tenor body (orange as opposed to pale yellow) and the brown wooden mouthpiece with gold trim and ligature, and you’ve got a Frankenstien kinda horn. All I wanted was something simple and it got more complex…of course, maybe this is the real simple solution…we’ll see…

…but for now, I like it…

Finally, I did manage to finish the new piece for the wonderful German pianist Susanne Kessel. The work, for pianist and singing bowl (one player) now has the title of jalewa, which refers to a Nepalese river bird. I’m very happy with the piece; I feel as if I was channeling both Morton Feldman and Oliver Messiaen. I think that watching the performance of the piece will be as wonderful as listening to it–I make Susanne hold the singing bowl the entire time with her left hand while she strikes it and plays piano with the right hand.  I can’t wait!

So, there it is–my life update for you all, with a little equipment geeking-out. I hope you enjoyed it.

Until soon,

Demetrius

Dear All,

Since my last post was about 2010 and all of the surprises it held (especially since, as I mentioned, I assumed it would be a ‘quiet’ year), I’ve decided to write a little about the major projects that I have cooking for 2011. Most of these are for the spring, as the summer and fall are only now beginning to take shape. Again, I never know what will actually happen, but in many ways, that’s a lot of the excitement of it all…stressful at times, but exciting overall.

Strangely enough, one of the major upcoming events in 2011 was signed on December 30th. This would be the reissue of my first two solo CDs–When Wind Comes to Sparse Bamboo (2003) and From a Far-off World (2006)–which were originally released on Capstone Records. The Capstone catalog, which is now facilitated by Parma Recordings and under the profound stewardship of Bob Lord, will release the CDs through the Naxos Online Library, as well as Amazon and iTunes, as part of their new ‘Capstone Collection’. I am very pleased that these recordings will have a new life, and perhaps a new audience. This will happen in the first part of 2011.

This past weekend ushered in another stage of a major multi-year project. Many years ago, I had the idea to create a multimedia monodramatic opera entitled Cassandra, based on the enigmatic character from Greek mythology (Iliad, Orestia, and others). After some failed attempts at finding grant funding, I put together a very strong artistic team (Jacquelyn Familant, soprano; Adam Blanshay, director; Kate Light, librettist; Sylviane Jacobsen, set designer; others) and we have decided to make this happen for 2013. This weekend, we filmed a scene from the opera (a recitative and aria, titled The Cup of Agony, which, by the way, we created, rehearsed, and staged starting two weeks ago) to use for both grant applications and other methods of fundraising and publicity. The film of this scene will go up on my youtube channel by week’s end.

Speaking of my youtube channel, I will be posting new live performance videos from my festival performances in Tajikistan and Poland very soon. Stay tuned!

Many of you know about my work promoting American women composers abroad, especially to women composition students in the former Soviet Union that have no proper role models. On March 10, I have the honor of presenting a solo concert for the Women’s Work 2011 series, featuring many of the composers whose works I have promoted, and many new ones, as well. This series has been undergoing a difficult time due to having their funding and support cut last-minute with no warning, and past any deadlines to apply for other funding. Below is a link with series director Beth Anderson-Harold talking about this year’s plight and concerts. The project is now fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas, and any support or donation is considered a charitable donation.

Women’s Work 2011

I am truly delighted with my collaboration with sculptor Laura Evans. Laura and I have created a project entitled Corpus Apparatus. This work is a visual/sonic installation that will be presented as both a featured work in Laura’s show at the Boston Sculptors Gallery from March 15 to April 17, 2011, and as a featured work for the TransCultural Exchange 2011 Conference on International Opportunities in the Arts: The Interconnected World, April 7-10, 2011. My music is an acousmatic (electronic music, created in the studio and using as source material recordings of me created specifically for this) piece which will emanate from within the sculpture. My electronic score to Corpus Apparatus won the CAP award from the American Music Center this fall. This award is to fund the final production and presentation of the work.

2011 will also start off with a bang compositionally. The wonderful German pianist Suzanne Kessel has engaged me to write a new work for her that also utilizes her playing ‘percussion’ as well as piano. I have decided to use Tibetan singing bowls as the ‘percussion’ instrument. The new piece, with a working title of Breathe, will be premiered this year in Germany and other European locations.

I will also be collaborating as both composer and performer with the wonderful Boston-based choreographer Rebecca Rice in a performance to be held at New York City’s Merce Cunningham Studio. Details of this June 13 performance soon to follow.

Amidst all of the major projects, the numerous other smaller concerts scattered throughout the year, some intense recording sessions, and a very heavy teaching schedule, I am in fact planning on composing and recording a new CD that combines new compositions, improvisation, world music, and electronics. All I am saying at this point is that it will happen…you’ll have to wait for details…:)

As always, i am humbled and honored by your continued interest and support. I wish you all a wonderful, successful, and peaceful New Year.

Warmly,

Demetrius

"Cassandra", stage for filming, Jan 02, 2011

2010 was quite a year for me, mostly due to all of its surprises. It’s very funny…in retrospect, I smile at the way that I looked at 2010 at this point in 2009: a period of consolidation and documenting past works and recordings and figuring out the next move(s). I wasn’t sure what was going to happen professionally with the world financial crisis, and I didn’t know where I may be living come fall.

At this point in 2009, I hadn’t decided to release Sfumato (or anything else) and I didn’t have any international traveling planed. Needless to say, this changed rapidly and drastically.

Since I brought up Sfumato by name first, I may as well start with that. The idea to finally move forward with this project hit me in 2009 around, oh, now. It had been sitting on my desk (and desktop) for almost two years–I couldn’t think about what to do with it. Initial explorations found record companies interested in producing it, but for far more money than I wanted to spend on it. The issue was that I didn’t know what to do with it: it was a one-time recording, my collaborator was in Russia, so I couldn’t tour with it or use it for festivals; also, I really wasn’t sure what category it fit in…classical? not really; jazz? not at all; new age? maybe…I didn’t know what the audience would be.

So, I did what I considered to be the most reasonable thing: I created my own record label (DSM) and produced it myself. This was a lot of work, let me tell you…and even though it cost me literally 1/10 of what it would have to go through a record company, I paid for it in administrative work and publicity.

And, I had the release concert at the All Gallery in my home town of Lowell, MA. I wanted to do that for the city and for the arts scene there. I could have easily done it in NYC, but this felt right. Plus, I paired it with a talk to arts student at my Alma mater, Lowell High School.

But I’m glad I did it. It has been successful, and it is still selling–there will even be another publicity push early in the New Year, but that’s news for later. And, I now have a vehicle to produce other recordings, such as my single Spoken Origins that I released in October. More are coming in 2011.

Travel was a surprise, too. It was really around this time last year that I connected with the Bactria Cultural Centre in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. I was invited to be Artist-in-Residence for the 2nd Dushanbe Jazz Festival. This opportunity also coincided with my desire to promote cultural diplomacy in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which I have been working on for the past few years.

As it turned out, the we did not get the funding needed to make this happen, so I started a Kickstarter project to help fund this. Many people seemed to think that cultural diplomacy and bringing jazz and American culture to the far reaches of the globe was a worthy cause, so we were successful.

The U.S. Embassies, who have been my collaborators in my outreach projects, were able to support me somewhat for this project. They brought me down into the countryside and up into the Pamiri mountains and along the Afghanistan border, meeting villagers and musicians and working with children. The Embassy in Baku was so interested in what I was doing that I immediately got an invitation to go directly to Azerbaijan from Tajikistan to do the same work there. A final stop and concert in Riga, Latvia by invitation and support by the Embassy there rounded out an amazing month of travel, concerts, and life experiences.

Amazingly, in Baku, I met a Polish pianist named Stanislaw Deja. We ended up playing an improvisation together–very off the cuff–of Somewhere Over The Rainbow, and he immediately invited me to Poland to perform a ‘Jazz Mozart’ concert with him at the Mozartiana Festival in Gdansk, Poland in August. I went. It was a great success!

Throughout the year, I had some great domestic solo performances, as well. I had two fantastic performances as Resident Artist for the Composers Collaborative Inc. Serial Underground Series: one for the 2009-10 Season, and one for the 2010-11 season, although both happened within the 2010 calender.

Probably the most fun concert I gave was half as a jazz soloist, and half as a classical conductor. I participated in the Best Buddies Carnegie Hall Fundraiser Concert. The first half had me playing an improvisation on–yes again–Somewhere Over The Rainbow (I like this song…), while the second half gave me the great opportunity to conduct my great friend and colleague and brilliant pianist  Elaine Kwon in the Rubinstein Piano Concerto No. 4, leading the New York Chamber Virtuosi. The fundraiser was a great success!

This was a great year for achievement in composing. For the second year in a row, I was recognized with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers ASCAPlus Award, and I was a recipient of the American Music Center’s CAP Award. I had a number of pieces performed and recorded, and commissions for new works that came into being for upcoming seasons.

I also finally figured out youtube and twitter and all of their myriad possibilities. Come join me there!

Amongst the biggest news was my appointment as Assistant Professor of Music at Five Towns College, and my move back to NYC from Boston. My career has been centered in NYC for years–it was only a matter of time until I would return here. I feel at home.

So, all in all, 2010 was a pleasant surprise–heck, it was an amazing year! I don’t know what 2011 will bring. In a few days, I will write about what I have planed, and what I am setting into motion.

Only time will tell…

Yours always,

Demetrius

Dear All,

It is with great pleasure that I announce that I have been honored with the CAP Grant Award by the American Music Center to produce and present my acousmatic work Corpus Apparatus.

The purpose of the Composer Assistance Program grant is to give ‘direct, project-based assistance to help (composers) realize their music in performance’.

Corpus Apparatus, a collaboration with Boston-based sculptor Laura Evans, will take the form of a visual/sonic installation that will be presented as both a featured work in Laura’s show at the Boston Sculptors Gallery from March 15 to April 17, 2011, and as a featured work for the TransCultural Exchange 2011 Conference on International Opportunities in the Arts: The Interconnected World, April 7-10, 2011. My music is an acousmatic (electronic music, created in the studio and using as source material recordings of me created specifically for this) piece which will emanate from within the sculpture.

Here are the program notes on the project:

Corpus Apparatus will take the form of a physical and sonic sculptural installation that utilizes both biological and mechanical elements. The physical form of the sculpture evokes a human heart–the basis of our humanity, but also a powerful machine. Elements recalling machinery and technology invade the humanity of this heart–an evolution, or a perversion? In Corpus Apparatus, sound will provide an important level of psychological stimulus to suggest this altered reality. As the sculpture itself is a blending of human and mechanical, sound emanating from the sculpture will create a constant flow between these two extremes. To create this acousmatic piece, I have recorded myself in the studio vocalizing and playing flute, alto flute, tenor saxophone, and Pamiri (Tajik) nai; these recordings are my complete source material for the work.

I can’t thank the American Music Center enough for this honor and opportunity.

Warmly,

Demetrius

Dear All,

Mainly, I am writing to let you know that due to unforeseen circumstances, my new work Giuffre Sketches will not be premiered on Sunday, December 5th, at Cornelia Street Cafe. Instead, I will be playing an extended solo set which will include my multi-movement piece …no longer to his father… in–as always with this ever-evolving work–a new incarnation. CCi Serial Underground.

A reminder for those in the Boston area: On Saturday, December 4th, my work Angels Praise Thee will be performed by the Polymnia Choral Society under the direction of Murray Kidd at the First Congregational Church in Melrose. I am truly grateful to Murray for continuing to program this work with various choral groups across New England. Thank you.

In stupidly ridiculous news, it appears that SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) will no longer allow violins or other stringed instruments as carry-on luggage; now they must be checked as baggage and the owner will be charged an extra baggage fee for their priceless Stradivaria to be crushed in the hold…

And finally, a big shout-out to the student newspaper at Five Towns College–The Record–for publishing a full-page interview with me as the ‘new kid in town’ of the faculty.

Thank you all again for your continued support.

With warmest regards,

Demetrius

Performance at Cornelia St. Cafe, April, 2010

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

Happy Halloween,

I am in the mood today to muse about my current state of creative satisfaction. Considering the tremendous amount of work piled on me lately–most especially for my new teaching gig at Five Towns College–I am completely satisfied at the amount of creative work that I have been able to ‘churn out’. I think that I am one of those people–actually, I know I am–that not only thrives under pressure, but actually accomplishes more the more that I have to do. In other words, I function best in ‘overdrive’.

I wonder if I would actually do anything if I went to an artist residency to create freely…I like the pressure of deadlines…I like the pressure of, if not really the impossible, than the improbable, goal…maybe I find it challenging…maybe I just find it fun…

I am most satisfied with two new compositions that I have completed in the last few weeks. Both are large works, and both have their premiers coming soon–again, the inspiration of the deadline.

The first is a collaboration with sculptor Laura Evans. Laura and I have created a project entitled Corpus Apparatus. This work is a visual/sonic installation that will be presented as both a featured work in Laura’s show at the Boston Sculptors Gallery from March 15 to April 17, 2011, and as a featured work for the TransCultural Exchange 2011 Conference on International Opportunities in the Arts: The Interconnected World, April 7-10, 2011. My music is an acousmatic (electronic music, created in the studio and using as source material recordings of me created specifically for this) piece which will emanate from within the sculpture.

Here are the program notes on the project:

Corpus Apparatus will take the form of a physical and sonic sculptural installation that utilizes both biological and mechanical elements. The physical form of the sculpture evokes a human heart–the basis of our humanity, but also a powerful machine. Elements recalling machinery and technology invade the humanity of this heart–an evolution, or a perversion? In Corpus Apparatus, sound will provide an important level of psychological stimulus to suggest this altered reality. As the sculpture itself is a blending of human and mechanical, sound emanating from the sculpture will create a constant flow between these two extremes. To create this acousmatic piece, I have recorded myself in the studio vocalizing and playing flute, alto flute, tenor saxophone, and Pamiri (Tajik) nai; these recordings are my complete source material for the work.

The other major work finished this fall is a piece that will have its premier on December 5, 2010 at New York City’s Cornelia Street Cafe, as part of the Composers Collaborative, Inc. Serial Underground series. I have the pleasure of being a Resident Artist for this series for the second consecutive year. The new work, entitled Giuffre Sketches, will be performed by me on clarinet, tenor and baritone saxophones, and CCi’s Artistic Director Jed Distler on piano.

Here are the program notes:

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.

Finally, I also was delighted to release as a single my composition Spoken Origins, for alto saxophone and electronics, on October 14. I composed and recorded this work in Russia in 2008, but was reluctant to include it as part of a collection of works–it just didn’t seem to fit with the spirit of other works that I recorded at that time, most of which being film/animation scores and more Postmodern electro-acoustic works. It needed a life of its own.

Here are the program notes:

Entirely based on Ancient philosophy, the piece presents different phases in humanity’s evolution, which are represented by themes both Ancient and Modern, as well as events that evoke specific images, such as Russian Orthodox church bells.

Spoken Origins may be purchased at CD Baby, Amazon, and eventually on iTunes, Napster, and other digital distributors (within the next weeks).

So, all in all, it has been a very creative fall, and a very creative and satisfying 2010 in general. I will go more into detail on 2010 in a few weeks when I give my written assessment of the year and discuss my upcoming projects in 2011.

Thank you all again for your support!

Demetrius

Dear All,

It is with great pleasure that I announce the premier of my piece Romance and Rondo for trumpet, English horn, and piano. The piece, written for and performed by Geoffrey and Laura Shamu, will be presented at the the Community Music Center of Boston‘s Allen Hall on November 4, 2010 at 7PM.

I wrote this piece as a gift for the celebration of Geoffrey and Laura’s wedding in 2007.

But that’s not where the story begins…

Time travel, to (approximately) 1989…I was an undergraduate at Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music, and a budding composer. One of my closest friends in those days was a trumpeter by the name of Eric Berlin. Eric is currently the trumpet teacher at University of Massachusetts, Amhearst, the Principal Trumpet for the Albany Symphony, and one of the busiest trumpeters in New England; he’s also an amazing musician and a great guy.

Now, over one of the summers during undergrad, Eric participated in the Pierre Monteux School program. One of the instructors, in wanting to get Eric to play with unbridled expression, asked him to think about a woman and to give her a name, then to sing to her. He came up with the name ‘Laura’, and put words to the trumpet solo, declaring his love and intentions. From what he said, the difference was miraculous.

Eric, coming back from the program, tells me this story. I (as budding composer) decides (fruitlessly…) that this can be the beginning of a rock-opera. I was at that time fascinated by the Orpheus and Eurydice story, and wanted to create an updated version in a modern setting. I titled the new project Jamie and Laura, and worked on it for the better part of that year.

Well, an opera–even a rock one–is something that a budding composer in his early 20′s probably shouldn’t be tackling; after working through a few arias, I ‘tabled’ the project…I came back to it a few times, but never seriously. However, there was one aria whose melody continued to haunt me: this was the first piece of the project that I wrote, the one inspired by Eric’s story and that took the words almost verbatim from the text he added to the trumpet solo at the summer program…I titled this aria For Laura.

Fast forward to 2007. Geoffrey (who, by the way, is my brother-in-law) and Laura decide to get married. I can’t attend the wedding because I am touring the Balkans (I think specifically playing in Bulgaria) that day. But, as a gift, I decide to write them a piece.

Guess what melody starts to creep into my consciousness…?

The Romance and Rondo became in its own way a nostalgic look at my past. The Romance is the For Laura theme; I didn’t change it very much, and it keeps its 70′s pop-ballad feel that I knew from my youth. Of course, Laura plays that melody–here on English horn.

All of my friends in undergrad were trumpet players–I just get along well with brass players, in general. I never jived with woodwind players as a student; brass players drank beer and watched football…woodwind players just whined a lot. I hung with the brass guys. Plus, since I played a lot of baritone sax back then–which they thought was cooler than any of the ‘wimpy’ woodwind instruments–they made me an ‘unofficial’ brass player.

That being said, needless to say, I was inundated with trumpet repertory. I am probably the only reed player who can sing the main themes to every major piece in the trumpet solo and orchestral rep. I also heard a lot of Herbert Clarke cornet solos. The Rondo is my version of a Clarke cornet solo, with just a touch of ‘rock-opera’ left over from days gone by…the opening piano part is reminiscent of Jerry Lee Lewis, and the fugue (ish) ‘C” section recalls the fascination of my Conservatory days with Bach (I went so far as to study Baroque interpretation with Daniel Pinkham, but that is a story for another time…).

But this piece, even though it obviously evokes my youth and is full of nostalgia, is a piece of celebration. It is not a ‘high-minded’ work by any stretch of the imagination, nor one that pines on lost youth, but one that celebrates the joy of life.

We forget sometimes as ‘artists’ that art has to effect us on a basic level. This piece is all about that; its purpose is to bring a smile. That’s it, pure and simple.

Demetrius

Dear All,
Just a reminder about my solo concert on Sunday, October 17th, at 3PM at MCC’s Federal Building Assembly Room, Lowell, MA. Getting some great press for the hometown event!

https://sp.middlesex.mass.edu/pressreleases/Announcements/DispForm.aspx?ID=670

http://www.middlesex.mass.edu/events/wom/

http://calendar.boston.com/lowell-ma/events/show/145760045-improvisations-for-saxophone

http://www.cometolowell.com/pdfs/MCC_SaxophoneConcert.pdf

http://eventful.com/lowell/events/demetrius-spaneas-/E0-001-034430843-8

http://www.thevalleydispatch.com/ci_16287756?IADID=Search-www.thevalleydispatch.com-www.thevalleydispatch.com

Also, the night before (October 16) I have been invited as special guest for the Jazz Harvest, happening at Cavaliero’s Restaurant, also in Lowell!

Jazz Harvest

This event has been getting great press on the local radio station, WCAP.
Hoping to see some of you there for my homecoming!

Best always,
Demetrius

Dear Friends,

Please join me for a ‘homecoming’ concert in the city of my youth.

Improvisations for Saxophone
Noted saxophonist/composer Demetrius Spaneas, former MCC music faculty member and Lowell native, will perform solo improvisations ranging in styles from jazz to classical to world music. He also will perform some of his original compositions. Interwoven throughout the performance will be tales of his recent musical travels to Central Asia.
3 p.m. • Sunday, Oct. 17
Federal Building Assembly Room, Lowell Campus

http://www.middlesex.mass.edu/events/WOM/

Playing in Quba, Azerbaijan