2007

November 1

NEW DVDs FOR SALE

Halloween is over, and that means November is here. And with November upon us, the Holidays are not far behind. For those who like to get that early start on Christmas shopping (and even for those who don't), I would like to suggest a couple of gift ideas to consider this season.

As most of you know by know by now, my first solo album, The Piano Music of Frederic Rzewski, is due for release on Bridge Records sometime in the near future. The recording is finished, but we are short a sizable amount of money before we are able to produce this CD. It is with that in mind that I have embarked upon a fundraising campaign to help raise a portion (if not all) of the missing funds.

I am offering for sale an exclusive DVD featuring three recent live performances of mine. This DVD has something for everyone: the witty, the virtuosic, and the avant-garde. This DVD will provide you with the "highlights" of various performances I have given throughout the States--perfect for those people who have been unable to hear me perform much over the past three years, or who have wanted to hear more.

Included on the DVD are three feature performances:

1. Rzewski: De Profundis (a sneak peak at one of the major works to be included on the Bridge CD) [Recorded 2007]
2. Ives: Emerson Concerto with the Ives Festival Orchestra [Recorded 2005]
3. McConnell: Concerto for Toy Piano with the New England Conservatory Symphony Orchestra [Recorded 2005]

There is also a unique bonus feature included: a performance of Tchaikovsky's famous Piano Concerto No. 1 recorded while I was 17 with the Manitowok Symphony Orchestra. Curious how I sounded ten years ago? Check it out!

Each DVD sells for $30 plus $5 shipping per order. All proceeds will go directly to the Rzewski recording process. The goal may seem lofty, but I would love to sell 250 DVDs. If I can meet this ambitious goal, all financial obligations will be met, and the album could be released in the next few months!

There are two ways to order:
-Mail the order form and a check to the address given on the form

-Send an email to kirchoffpressrelease@gmail.com with your address and the number of DVDs ordered, and then send a PayPal payment to: keithkirchoff@gmail.com [notice the different email!]

These DVDs are only available on keithkirchoff.com. So spread the word and forward this email to all of your friends. The DVD will be available to ship November 17th, but put your order in now.

Listen

I have a couple of new recordings to listen to: One is the solo piano version of my own composition Hymns (played by yours truly), and the second is a recording of Christopher Biggs's Externalities. Check them out!

Last But Not Least

Philip Black gave a rousing performance of Doodles: five variations for solo tuba a couple nights ago at Wichita State University. I am hoping to post a video of his performance soon, so check back often!

October 5

NEW RECORDINGS & NEW REVIEWS

Well, Rzewski is finally in the can. So to speak.

During the last week in September, I was in New York recording my first solo album: a survey of Rzewski's piano music including De Profundis, Mayn Yingele, The Turtle and the Crane, and Snippets. The recording went very, very well, and, together with my producer/engineer Adam Abeshouse, we put together what I think will be an exciting recording.

The sessions were not without adventure, however. For those who know me well, it comes as no surprise to hear that I have a rather unfortunate history of accidentally damaging pianos and causing their technicians much grief. It's a curse that has haunted me since youth: popped strings, broken hammers, misaligned dampers, even snapped-off black keys, all seem to follow me wherever I go. Now, don't get me wrong: I never intend this to happen. In fact, at least 50% of my broken strings have come during soft, melodic passages; I have popped them in Chopin Nocturnes as much as Ives "piano-drumming." (It actually reminds me of a time when I was quite little and I lost a baby-tooth in a bowl of chicken noodle soup. But I digress.)

I had only been recording for about twenty minutes when the first string snapped. We were recording The Turtle and the Crane, and in the piece's final pages, <pop> went treble string. This of course slows the recording process considerably, as the technician has to come up, fix the string, re-tune the piano, etc. Sadly, two other strings were to snap during the sessions as well. (Supposedly, the piano hadn't had a broken string in six years. Like I said, it's a curse!)

Broken strings were not my only worry, though, as I also snapped off the backcheck of D4. (The backcheck is the the part of the action that catches the hammer-tail.) This was a new one for both me and my technician: neither of us had ever heard of such a thing happening. Well, this slowed the day even more, as the backcheck had to be re-glued, a process which took a couple hours to complete.

Fortunately, after such an eventful first day, the following two went quite smoothly in comparison and were an absolute joy. I specifically want to thank Andy, Adam, Ed, and Becky for making this experience go so well.

Now we just need $8000 so we can produce and release this album!

OTHER RECORDING NEWS

A couple years ago, I recorded John Luther Adam's For Lou Harrison with the Callithumpian Consort. When I returned from my NY recording, I was pleased to learn that this disc has finally been released by New World Records. For Lou Harrison is a beautiful 60+ minute work for two pianos and small orchestra. I urge you to check it out. You can order it here. Now, I will receive a percentage of all purchases made on amazon.com through my website. All proceeds will go towards my upcoming Rzewski recording. Click here to read a review of the Adams disc.

OTHER REVIEWS

Everything seems to happen all at once. I just received a copy of the newest edition of the International Tuba Euphonium Journal, and discovered that my work for solo tuba, Doodles, had been reviewed. It's a rather favorable review, and you can read it here.

August 22

THE KIMMEL HARDING NELSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS

I just returned from a two week residency at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska City, Nebraska. The Center is set up to be an artist retreat center: they invite artists of all mediums (while I was there, there were two poets, a photographer, and a number of painters) to come and essentially remove themselves from everyday life and immerse themselves in art. The Center, which also houses a very nice gallery of work from past residents, supplied me with a beautiful apartment in which to live, a huge studio in which to work, and a great amount of time.

The result of the residency was the completion of a new piano piece. The work, a fifteen minute piece for piano and electronics, is my largest composition for solo piano, and also longest single movement piece I have ever written. I'm quite proud of the piece as it is a departure from my usual style. I hope to premier it later this year, so check back for more details.

While I was in Nebraska City, I had the great fortune to meet Suheil Baddor, who was also in residency at KNH, and is widely considered to be one of the Arab world's greatest living painters. While I don't know too many other Arab painters with which to compare him, I can say that he is easily one of the greatest painters I have ever seen. His work is highly abstract, and he tends to paint and focus on faces: faces on the outside (people, mostly women) and faces on the inside (the soul). He is currently doing an exhibition until the end of September at the University of Omaha, and if anyone has the chance to look at it, I strongly encourage you to do so. He's also a gifted poet and writer, and you can learn all about him at http://www.baddor.com.

My experience at KHN was actually the highlight of the summer, and some of the most productive time I have ever spent composing. Furthermore, it gave me an opportunity to meet artists from other mediums I otherwise never would have encountered. It is very easy for musicians, especially performing musicians, to get thoroughly wrapped up in our own worlds, locking ourselves away in practice rooms and never venturing outside. I find that in general, our knowledge of the other arts is at a minimum, and that we not only focus on just music, but on our own music; rarely even familiarizing ourselves with the great masterpieces in other repertoires, be it opera, cello, or clarinet. And it leaves us all the poorer, for all of the arts influence each other so thoroughly! At any point in history, one can find the poets influencing the playwrights, who influenced the painters, who influenced the sculptors, who influenced the composers, who influenced the poets. But in modern arts society, we so rarely know who our colleagues are in other mediums. If asked, I know I could hardly name any great painters of my generation. I could name plenty of young composers, but not too many painters.

It is places like KHN that change that for the young artist. I met and worked side-by-side with young (and not-so-young), successful artists in other fields. I was able to break myself from the mundane ritual of daily life, and go to a place where I could do nothing but compose, and, for breaks, chat with one of the world's greatest living painters: pick his brain, study his work. It's amazing what I not only accomplished, but learned as well.

I say all this mainly to encourage all of my colleagues to investigate not only KHN, but other residencies as well. If you haven't ever participated in a residency such as that, you will be amazed what you will accomplish.

For more about the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, visit: http://www.khncenterforthearts.org/

Copyright 2007 Suheil Baddor
All rights reserved

July 5

INRODUCING THE NEW KEITHKIRCHOFF.COM!!

We're back up and running! As many of you may have wondered, over the past three months, keithkirchoff.com has experienced an enormous overflow of technical problems, during which time, I was unable to update information. For those who continued to check back regularly only to discover old news, I apologize. Thank you, however, for your continued patronage and support of this site!

I would like to call your attention to many new features on keithkirchoff.com. First, I have added an archive section to my news page. Thus, only the most current entries will ever be displayed on the news page, and all past postings will be listed in the archive. This archive can be reached by clicking the link on the bottom of this page.

There is also a new page altogether: Testimonials. On this page, one can read what various composers have said about my performances of their work. I will also include other comments and reviews about my performances and compositions here.

I have added more recordings to my recordings page, and by the end of next week, the world premier of Doodles will be added to my compositions page. I have also included a couple new links on my links page, including a wonderful online source for free downloads of Rzewski's scores. My repertoire page has been redone as well, and now includes cross-referenced tabs. Lastly, my projects page has been reworked altogether to more accurately reflect my current projects. I encourage you to check out all these exciting new changes!

Now, onto some real news!


Paul Lombardi Recording
I am very pleased to announce that my recording of Paul Lombardi's Nocturne has been released by Zerx Leisure Productions on Albuzerxque vol. 26. To order a CD or for more information about this label, please visit http://zerxpress.blogspot.com/2005/06/zerxcatalog-albuzerxque.html. I have also included a downloadable recording of this piece on my recordings page.

New Composition Recording to be Released
I am also very excited to announce my third recording project, this time with MMC Records. We will be producing an album featuring my works as a composer. MMC has a wonderful catalog, and it will be a great experience working with them on this project. This CD is quite likely still someways off from hitting the shelves, but keep checking back to learn of it's progress. To learn more about MMC, please visit their website: http://www.mmcrecordings.com/

Rzewski Album
For those wondering what has become of my solo Rzewski album, you will pleased to learn that the Argosy Foundation only recently awarded us a sizable grant towards our project. While we are still a bit shy of the required $20,000 for production, we are getting closer by the minute. The actual recording of the disc should be underway soon. By the end of next week, you will be able to check the progress of this project by clicking on the Rzewski link on my projects page. http://bridgerecords.com/

While on the topic of my Rzewski album, I would like to thank the Central Minnesota Music School for their help and support of this project. Without them, this recording would be impossible.

MySpace
At the constant urging my many of my colleagues and friends, I have finally launched a MySpace page. While there is very little posted on MySpace that isn't already posted at keithkirchoff.com, I do have a semi-current blog set up on the MySpace page. If you wish to learn of the many adventures I experienced while on my tour of Italy, for example, I would like to direct you towards that page. To view the blog, visit: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog&Mytoken=80597A71-D89C-4ABE-9CEBB4142BA6E52795669607
To visit the MySpace page: http://myspace.com/keithkirchoff

Upcoming Residency
My final bit of news is that I have been offered a residency at the KHN Center for the Arts during August. KHN (Kimmel Harding Nelson) is a sort of "artist retreat center": it's a place for artists to escape the stress and action of everyday life, and go to a quiet environment to do nothing but create their art uninterrupted. KHN supports artists of all forms: painters, poets, composers, etc. While I am there, I will be enjoying two weeks of uninterrupted composing amongst the quietude of nature and fellow artists. I am quite looking forward to this opportunity, and be sure to check back at the end of summer to learn how it went.

February 15

WORLD PREMIER OF DOODLES TO TAKE PLACE