Masterclass

Yesterday I gave a masterclass on contemporary music at the Performing Arts Center in Duxbury, MA. It was great working with students from Duxbury High School's Wind Ensemble, which I performed in 10 years ago! I talked about performance techniques, working with composers, using electronic processing, and improvisation. At the end, I answered questions on life as a musician.

The original plan was to present alongside Elisabeth, but she became sick at the last moment and couldn't make it. She is starting to feel better though!

Consider it kicked-off

Elisabeth and I performed in Plymouth, MA last Sunday. We had a great audience of friends, family (including my 93 year old grandmother), new acquaintances, my first sax teacher, and composer Jason Belcher. Many thanks to everyone for their support!

Duxbury Reporter Article

The Duxbury Reporter published an article about our project in preparation for our Massachusetts kick-off events! Read the article here.

Up and Running

After a late night getting everything ready, our Kickstarter page is live! We are raising $3,000 to cover the costs of commissions and recording/producing a CD. Help fund the project at: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zachherchen/emerging-voices-project-music-for-voice-and-sax.

From our Kickstarter page:

Elisabeth Halliday and I have created the Emerging Voices Project to commission, perform, and record music for voice and saxophone. We met while studying at The Peabody Conservatory and have performed together throughout the past 6 years. This is our first strictly duo project and we are excited to share it with you!

We were inspired to create this project by Lori Laitman's "I Never Saw Another Butterfly", a musical setting of poetry written by children who lived in the concentration camp Theresienstadt. We've performed this piece several times and enjoy playing as a duo so much that we want to create more music for voice and sax! Elisabeth and I have selected American composers Kathleen Bader, Adam Knauss, and George Lam to write pieces for us based on the themes of childhood and loss of innocence. In 2011 we will premiere these new works and release them on CD alongside "I Never Saw Another Butterfly".

This is a big project for us and we've spent months planning. We are now ready to start the project, but we need your support to make it happen. Your pledge will help fund the cost of commissioning the composers and recording/producing the CD. We have great awards lined up for you so please consider giving what you can and help spread the word!

Masterclass in Duxbury, MA

Elisabeth and I are excited to announce that we will be giving a masterclass for Duxbury High School students as part of our kick-off week! I graduated from DHS in 2002 and can't do enough to support their amazing music program. The event will take place at Duxbury's beautiful Performing Arts Center, across the street from the high school. We'll be working with their wind ensemble students on contemporary music performance, extended technique, and what it's like to be a professional musician. I'll be sure to post photos after the event!