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Hello! Melissa Dunphy here, trying my level best to whip up a newsletter update as fast as possible between work and travel. At Mormolyke Press/Boghouse HQ, we’ve been so busy the past few months, we can barely catch our breath. As I keep saying over and over—usually while sprinting out the door or gobbling down a meal I forgot to eat—this is a fantastic problem for a freelance artist to have. My team and I haven’t sent out a newsletter since August of last year; every time we sit down to do it, we drastically underestimate how long it takes to write, and before we know it, the office is being swamped by a new and more urgent workload, such as proofreading a 45-minute score and parts I just finished, or printing hundreds of copies of sheet music for a conference, or sending out a new grand rights agreement.
So I’m wiping the slate clean, and trying for some really broad strokes, because even if this doesn’t include everything, it’s the only way to break the paralysis.
Let me start with what’s happening this week, and then I’ll do an extremely incomplete highlight reel of the last six months. |
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 | ACDA National ConferenceI have written so. much. music. in the last few years, enough that I BOUGHT AN EXHIBITOR BOOTH at the national ACDA conference! Gone are the days when I would drag my scores around in a rolling bag (or ask an assistant to do it, to her mortification)—there’s just too much music. If you’re in Dallas, swing by the Winspear Opera House, booth 310, and say hello to me and my beloved Mormolyke Press team, who as I type this, are busy setting everything up in the glorious Texas heat. |
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Pictured: Matt, Nate, Sarah, and my best friend Jason from Australia who just happens to be in town!!!
While you’re saying hello, why not help a composer out by pocketing some free swag and buying some scores so we don’t have to ship them back to Philadelphia afterward? (No but seriously, shipping is $$$$) One example of the excellent wares on offer: while stocks last, I am giving away these dreamy Mormolyke-Press-branded tuning forks. If you can look at this photo without coveting one, I’m not sure that we have anything in common: |
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“But how much music have you written?” I hear you ask inside my head. I have written so much music that Matt created a super handy search page to help you navigate the cornucopia and choose the best scores for your needs. Check it out from the comfort of your own computer (currently it works best in desktop/laptop browsers), or try it out in person at the Mormolyke Press booth search station. |
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Chorus Austin + Austin Symphony
While the team is setting up the booth, I’m currently across the state in Austin, because Chorus Austin and the Austin Symphony are premiering a new song—literally a new song, it’s called Canticum Novum—on Friday and Saturday nights. My work will open the program, which includes perennial banger Carmina Burana. |
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Artistic director Ryan Heller and I at rehearsal with Chorus Austin last night.
I’m a bit devastated that I can’t be at the concerts because of ACDA, but I managed to swing it so I can at least attend a couple of rehearsals before speeding driving safely and responsibly across Texas later tonight. If you’re in Austin this weekend, please go in my stead! |
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VERY ABBREVIATED HIGHLIGHTS |
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As mentioned in our last newsletter, Totality was premiered at the BBC Proms last summer by VOCES8 and The King’s Singers, which was without a doubt one of the most out-of-body fantasy moments of my life thus far—standing up in my seat to a packed crowd at Royal Albert Hall is peak fever-dream territory. Afterward, I ran down to the floor and forced Matt to take the above photo of me in the dress I made for the occasion (I’ve often found that after writing a lot of music, I need to create something tangible and physical, so this time it was a dress). |
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A Gritty Resolution (feat. Gritty) |
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Eric Whitacre conducts Halcyon Days at Carnegie |
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The very next night, Halcyon Days was conducted by Eric Whitacre at Carnegie Hall. Eric was a very good sport when I asked him to take a photo pulling a face—part of a ongoing series that first began at ACDA 2019 when I met John Rutter (who is also lovely). I cannot quite process that these two events happened in the same 24-hour period. |
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Several more works have been premiered, several commercial recordings of my stuff have been released, I’ve done interviews and exciting teaching gigs, and there is a HUGE list of upcoming events I want to tell you about … but if I even begin to list it all here, I’ll run into the same problem we had in all our past attempts at writing newsletters. So I’m going to go eat some more tacos to keep my strength up, and trust you to visit my website in the meantime while we figure out how to brag about everything sensibly.
COME FIND ME AT ACDA!!! |
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OH WAIT ONE MORE THING BEFORE I SIGN OFF AAAHHHHH
If you’re in Philly and want some Boghouse action, Matt and I will be speaking at the Museum of the American Revoution on March 28 at 5:30PM! Get your tickets to Trash Talk Archaeology Night to see us geek out over privy finds and all their implications with some of our favorite people in the world, who just happen to run our favorite museum. I can’t wait!!!! |
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OK for real, see you all soon.
Love and Rockets, Melissa |
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