A good friend of mine, Christian Gentry, just won a Barlow Commission to write a violin-piano duo piece for me and Ben. He will write a piece that is about 20 minute long, and we look forward to premiering it!

Oh, and Arsenal Trio was in Banff, participating in the Chamber Music Residency at The Banff Centre during the first three weeks of June 2008. We worked with Phil Setzer (of Emerson Quartet), Mark Steinberg (of Brentano quartet), Stephen Prutsman (an amazing and versatile pianist from SFO), Henk Guittard (artistic adviser of the Banff Centre’s music program), members of Gryphon trio, and Barry Shiffman (director of The Banff Centre’s Music Program). Also we had a great opportunity to record Ravel Piano Trio with awesome audio engineers, Alexis Baskind and David French. Part(s) of this recording will be posted on the “Media” section soon.

I and my great friend -and a great composer-Derek Johnson applied to the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust’s International Competition for pianist-composer collaboration and today I found out that WE WON!

I am the happiest person in the world at least for a day.

Things can be checked on the “schedule” but somehow the Google calendar time-zone is messed up! It appears an hour later than I had put and I have not been able to fix it..

* January 6, 7pm, House Concert at Dr. Brian Singletary’s, New Haven, CT. Program includes Piano Trios by Hummel, Ravel, Barnett, and Brahms.

* January 10, 8pm, University of Louisville Comstock Hall. Music of Marc Satterwhite. With Arsenal Trio

* January 14, 7pm, Indiana University Sweeney Hall. “Talk” at the Composition department seminar. Piano writing in the preludes and etudes by D. Freund, G. Ligeti, M. Ohana, Unsuk Chin, J. Corigliano, S. Shepherd and J. Merritt.

* January 15, 8pm, Indiana University Auer Hall. Guest solo recital featuring “Preludes and Etudes”

* January 22, 7:30pm, Plains Musuem Fargo. Pierrot Lunaire performance with NDSU faculty members

* February 14-15, St. Olaf College. Guest lecture, performance and recording. Music of Justin Merritt and a few others TBD

* March 18, 7:30pm, Duo recital with Benjamin Sung at the Plains Museum, Fargo, ND. Program to include Bartok’s Rhapsody, Prokofiev Sonata No. 1, and Messiaen Variations

* March 21-22, Guest performance at the Ball State University’s New Music Festival. Music of Steve Rouse, Jody Nagel, and a few others TBD

* April 6, 4pm, First Presbyterian Church, Fargo. Guest performance for the FM Symphony Chamber music series “Rapturous Ravel.” Maurice Ravel’s Piano Trio with Arsenal Trio

* April 22, 7:30pm, MMFA Auditorium. Duo recital with cellist Katerina Juraskova, MSO Fellowship recital series. Program TBA

* May 12, Guest solo recital for the Studio 2021 series at Seoul National University, Korea. “Piano writing in the etudes of the 20-21 century.”

* May 17, Lecture, Seoul National University (Analysis class)

* May 20, Guest recital for the Tuesday Concert Series at Seoul National University, Korea

* June 18 and 25, Performances at the Rolston Hall, The Banff Centre, with Arsenal Trio

* September 27, Duo recital with Benjamin Sung, Plains Arts Museum, Fargo

* October 10, Solo appearance with the University Symphony Orchestra in Fargo-Moorhead, Schumann Concerto in a minor, Hansen Theatre, Moorhead

* November 11, Tuesday concert series at Seoul National University, Korea

* November 19, The Pathway Project Concert, Eunpyung Methodist Church, Seoul, Korea

* TBD: Solo recital at Hallwalls Concert Hall, Buffalo, NY/ Solo recital at Concordia College, Moorhead, MN

Arsenal trio will perform at Beckwith Hall, NDSU on November 27.

Our soccer team is doing so superbly.

Hrant is arriving today!