I am enjoying the Write Like Mozart class from www.coursera.org. I am taking it along with a number of my students, and I am finding it to be an excellent way to reinforce music theory with the use of analysis and generative (composing) point of view.

I posted onto YouTube the video of the world premiere of my sacred work Fragments, for choir, two percussionists, and solo alto. Fragments is a setting of texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Thank you VERY much to the following who made it possible: Dennis Houser, conductor; Kate Howell, alto; Owen Davis, percussion; Maria Flurry, percussion; and the Yavapai College Choral Union

Music for Fragments is available on my site www.nathana.com.

Tags: Dead Sea Scrolls, Henry Flurry, Composition, Fragments, Geza Vermes

On February 12, 2012, Prescott POPS Symphony is to premiere "1912," my 15 minute orchestral work celebrating the Arizona centennial that they commissioned for the concert.

The work is in four movements, inspired by poetry of Martha Kirby Capo.

You can preview the score and audio files at www.nathana.com/1912. At that site, you'll also find the poems that Martha Kirby Capo wrote and program notes about the piece.

I will be conducing the piece. It has been an honor to rehearse the POPS symphony on this work and I look forward to its performance!

The San Tan Orchestra will also be playing "1912" on February 25 and 26.

At the aforementioned Suzuki Academy, in one of my repertoire classes I accompanied the students with my new Martin Guitar. I invited parents to bring guitars if they had one (one did) and I passed out guitar chords for them to play along.

I uploaded the Guitar Chords that I typed up to here. Feel free to download them, use them, and offer any feedback you might have.

Wow! What a week with the Academy!

Violinist Laura Tagawa and I are co-Directors of the Chaparral MusicFest Suzuki Academy. This year we are a Suzuki Association of the Americas sanctioned institute. Violinist Sarah deLaveaga, Suzuki violin teacher Barbara McClymonds, and percussionist Maria Flurry all chipped in for the extra-curricular classes and activities with the students.

The faculty recital with Laura, Sarah, Maria and myself was phenomenal on Wednesday evening. We played works by McLean, Saint-Saëns, Teleman, Mozart, Bartok, Bach, Faure, and (of course) Flurry.

The week with the students was intense, as usual, but we covered a lot. I love teaching the master classes with the students. It is rare as a teacher to be able to focus on only one piece for multiple lessons a row.

The final student recital on Saturday was inspiring. The pianist soloists all played with heart and confidence. The violinists played the group repertoire and fiddle tunes taught by Barbara. And one of the highlights, I thought, was when the pianists and violinists had the opportunity to play various duets together from my (still unpublished) 5-minute Duet series. These are short duets written for Suzuki violin and piano students that are designed to be taught in as a little as 5 minutes.

Some late nights for the co-Directors as we worked each evening for the next day, but I expect that each year's Institute will be easier and better than before. Feedback forms were universally quite positive, even from those who had attended the large Suzuki Institutes across the country.

Thanks, Laura, Sarah, Barbara, & Maria!