2013 Frame Dance Composition Competition Winner

by Lydia Interviews

rob

Congratulations to Robert McClure, winner of Frame Dance Productions Composition Competition.  His piece Integrated Elements No. 3 “Divide by Five” for gyil and tape was selected to be the music for our premiere this spring.

Robert McClure is a composer of chamber, electronic, and percussion music.  He completed a Masters Degree in Composition from the University of Arizona.  He is currently a DMA Candidate at Rice University where he serves as the Rice Electronic Music LABS Teaching Assistant.  His main composition teachers have been Dan Asia, Shih-Hui Chen, Richard Lavenda, Kurt Stallmann, and Craig Walsh.  He has also taken lessons with Donald Crockett and Yehudi Wyner.

Robert’s music has been performed nationally by the Bowling Green State University Percussion Ensemble, the University of Arizona Percussion Ensemble, The Del Mar Percussion Ensemble, the CSU-Long Beach Percussion Ensemble, the Sonora Winds, the Ironworks Percussion Duo, Da Camera of Houston, the Foundation for Modern Music, and the Toledo Symphony Orchestra among others.

He has been commissioned by individuals such as Becky Morris, Joshua Priest, Eric Hines, Kyle Maxwell-Doherty, Aaron Levy, Lisa Kachouee  and the University of Arizona Steel Bands, the Catalina Foothills High School Steel Bands, the IronWorks Percussion Duo, the Bowling Green State University Student Percussion Association, Trio Sonora, the Mid-American Center for Contemporary Music, and the Toledo Symphony Orchestra.

His music has been included in such festivals as LaTex Electronic Music Festival, North American Saxophone Alliance Conference, the University of Central Missouri New Music Festival, the Electronic Music Midwest Festival, Bowling Green State University MAACM 2012 New Music Festival, and SEAMUS 2011 (Society for Electro Acoustic Music in the United States).

Robert’s music is published by Bachovich Music Publications, Innovative Percussion, Media Press Inc., Purple Frog Press, Resolute Publications, and Tapspace Publications.  Recent and upcoming projects include The Gate for string quartet and computer choreographed by the Art.if.Act Dance Project, Music Box 9 for ensemble written for Houston’s outsider art environment, The Orange Show, and a piece for vibraphone and computer commissioned by Stephen Tobin.

Let’s welcome him to the Frame fun!

Past Winners

2012- Charles Halka

2011- Micah Clark

 

To the Brim Press

by Lydia Uncategorized

We just finished a weekend of performances in Dance Month’s Choreographers X6 program.  What a fun and fulfilling process this has been.  I posted a little teaser of the rehearsal a few weeks back and a lot has happened since.  Charles Halka, composer collaborator (and last year’s winner of our Composition Competition) finished writing the piece, we met the violinist Micah Ringham– whom we love– and the piece fell into a beautiful place right before the performance.  We will post video of the piece on the website sometime soon.  In addition, the piece came to a fullness that I had not anticipated in the beginning stages of dreaming.  At that time I had titled it A Long Line.  I’ve changed it since then, and the composer said it would be okay if I stole used his much more eloquent, memorable and fitting title, To the Brim.  Find out why I changed my mind here.

Yesterday Houston Press’s review came out.  Adam Castaneda writes this:

“Perhaps the most provocative choreography on the program was Lydia Hance’s A Long Line. The piece was performed to an original violin composition by Charles Halka. The music was performed live to captivating effect, as it gave the impression that the score and dance were married in synchronicity. Halka’s music is at times haunting, at time reflective, and Hance’s choreography is filled with such impulses. The trio of Jacqueline Boe, Laura Gutierrez and Ashley Horn moved in releases of the spine and contractions that suggested a personal investigation of self and space that is at times scary, yet, necessary to fulfillment. The dancers’ technical proficiency was also matched by soulful performance and an insightful understanding of musicality.”

view review here.

Happy Tuesday!

Links We Like Friday

by Lydia Links We Like

Ahhh yes!!  It’s Friday Framers.  And we celebrate with our Links We Like.  But quickly, before we go there, just wanted to give you a little update.

1) Stay tuned for the 2013 Composition Winner to be announced in one week,  I have to say, that I’m so thankful for having one more week.  This decision is agonizing.  It’s a good thing: excellent music is in your audience future.

2) We are performing this weekend in Choreographers X6, info and tickets-on-the-cheap can be found here.

3) There’s a Height Limit will screen at Motion Captured Dance Film Festival the following weekend.  Deets here.

4)  We are interviewing for Development Assistants, so if you know someone or are someone, contact us.

Okay.  Thanks for hanging in there.  These are your weekly Links We Like.

Some of Houston’s gems present at TEDxHouston:

1.  Jane Weiner (and the world’s greatest boss) puts the fear of a world with no art in us.  Scary Place.  Excellent talk.  Rise up, army of artists.

2.  Rice University and Musiqa’s Anthony Brandt gives us a supremely articulate and invigorating talk on the creative process.  I deeply identify with this.

3. Carrie Schneider talks about her Houston walking tours, Hear Our Houston, she empowers Houstonians to tell and share the stories of their city.

4.  Two Star Symphony is an ensemble performing in quartet and octet configurations, they compose and perform all-original music across a wide variety of genres.  Half band, half string quartet.  Watch here.

And in case you didn’t get how completely fabulous Houston is, read it here: in the New York Times.

Links We Like

by Lydia Links We Like

This nugget of integrity in the New York Times this morning got me thinking about this disease we call jealousy.  I think there’s something that happens after New Year’s, when we have all of our goals and resolutions, and we start to find that they’re harder to keep than we thought and we start to give up on them (we more than survived before we made those silly things anyway, right?)  But then we start to look around at other people, you know, Doing Things. We start to become unsettled and frustrated at ourselves, wishing we had the follow-through, talent, and (let’s just say it) luck of the people who Do Things. What an exhausting way to live.  And if you think about it, what a boring way to live.  We have your own lives, skills, identities, histories, personalities and dreams.  Why would we want to mimic those of others?  How dull it would be to forgo the excitement of a life not yet fulfilled than to play copycat to another.  I think we all could look in a little deeper.  You too can Do Things.

Never underestimate the power of jealousy and the power of envy to destroy. Never underestimate that.
Oliver Stone

And may I just say, how can we possibly wonder why there is such emotional turmoil in ballet, and that jealousy manifests itself akin to UFC?  The ballets are FULL of stories based on jealousy.  Ballet dancers are paid to fall deeply into characters obsessed with jealousy.  It’s the crux of Coppelia, Nutcracker, Giselle… comment below to grow this list…

Frame Dance Productions seeks Development Assistant

by Lydia Uncategorized

Seeking:

Motivated, positive, hard-working, creative, organized, curious individuals interested in leaning about non-profit management.

Qualifications:

Strong writer, excellent people skills, college student or graduate, interested in marketing and organization development.  A dance background is not a prerequisite.

Job Description:

Development Assistant

Assisting Artistic/Executive Director Lydia Hance in areas of development and marketing.  Frame Dance Productions has recently been selected for Houston Arts Alliance’s Pre-Incubator program for capacity building.  This next year will entail exciting and significant growth for the organization and the Development Assistant attends meetings and workshops to learn about and implement the changes necessary to grow Frame Dance Productions.

Term: 6 months, negotiable.

Interested applicants can email Lydia.Hance@framedance.org

Dance Month: Choreographers x6

by Lydia Performances/Screenings

Hello Frame Fans!!

Lydia here, and I feel like it’s been so long since I’ve updated you on the dancemaking around here.  You’ve been getting some great MFA Monday posts, and the helpful Eat Well Wednesday articles, and some fab Links We Like.  But now it’s time to return to the reason we are all here: dance.  Well, maybe that’s hyperbole.  It may be the reason most of us are here.

So, since October we’ve been slowly and carefully created a brand new piece called The Long Line.  It’s a trio of dancers including Jacquelyne Boe, Ashley Horn, and Laura Gutierrez.  Our composition competition winner Charles Halka has created a brand new piece for solo violin.  We are beyond thrilled to work with the musician in rehearsal tomorrow.  Are you in the Houston area?  Come peek in on a run through on Thursday at Hope Stone from 11:15-12:15.  I do have a little treat for you.  I have a video clip from weeks ago.  So I can’t say it’s the most up to date version (at all) but it gives a little flavor of the piece we’re making.  Also this is when only about 3 minutes of the music had been recorded, so the music is the first few minutes of the piece on loop.  The show will be at the Kaplan Theater at the ERJCC Houston on January 26 and 27.  Tickets are sold through the ERJCC.

Links We Like Friday

by Lydia Links We Like

Happy Friday Framers! Here’s a top Links We Like by Raquel Kahn, Company Rep. Thinking about her as she travels to Southeast Asia. Tribute to the wonderful Raquel! She writes:

My first three links today are a little heavy. The first two discuss the interesting and complex relationships between gender, identity, and dance:

1. This interview with Brenda Way, Founder and Artistic Director of Oberlin Dance Collective addresses the question of whether modern dance can be gender neutral?

2. The second I find inspiring! It discusses the idea that by exploring gender stereotypes through dance, we may see that they are actually fading…

3. Third is an article from GOOD magazine about empowering girls through education.

4. Now, after all that hard thinking, let your mind RELAX! and go to your quiet place. You know you deserve it, it’s been a long week….

Today is the deadline

by Lydia Uncategorized

About the Competition:

2012-2013 Frame Dance Productions Music Composition Competition

Note: The deadline is January 4, 2013.

Frame Dance Productions announces its competition to select a piece of music for its upcoming Spring season. Its two-fold purpose is to offer outstanding emerging composers a forum for their recognition as well as an opportunity to collaborate with the dance performance company, Frame Dance Productions. We are looking for completed pieces, or for samples in consideration for a future work.

Award and Performance
The winning composer’s music will be the basis of a new original work– film and/or live performance, and your music will be exposed to new audiences. The composer and music will be featured prominently as a collaborator with Frame Dance Productions. There are often press opportunities to increase the composer’s visibility as well as the possibility of future commissions.

Eligibility
All composers, who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents, are eligible.

Submission Guidelines
Works may be written for solo, duo, trio, quartet, or quintet.
Acoustic works that utilize electronic playback are also acceptable.
Electronic music is accepted and encouraged.

All music must be unpublished.

Interested composers should submit:

• a recording of the piece on a CD
• a biography, with current address, e-mail address, and phone number, and
• a stamped, self-addressed envelope, if they wish their music returned.

Entry Fee and Deadline
The entry fee is $15.00 and composers may submit up to three selections. Make checks payable to Frame Dance Productions. Please email for mailing address.

All entries must be postmarked no later than Friday, January 4, 2013.
Frame Dance Productions is not responsible for lost or damaged material.
The winning composition will be announced at FrameDance.org on Friday, January 31, 2013.

For submission details please email Lydia.Hance@FrameDance.org.
For more information on Frame Dance Productions, please visit FrameDance.org.

Links We Like Friday

by Lydia Links We Like

New Year’s Eve. New Year’s Day. New Year’s Resolutions!

It is usually a good idea to have goals, and the self-awareness to want to self-improve, but why do New Year’s resolutions have to be so dang cliche? I will bet you five bucks you can name all of the top ten resolutions.

So you have one. A resolution. What now? It’s good to know you’re not alone.

If your goal is to eat healthy, come follow nutrition coach Jill Tarpey with us every Wednesday right here.

And if you’re the kind of gal or guy who just needs to be hassled, we’ve got the tool for you: HassleMe. Email and text hasslings to keep you on track!