Today marks 6 months since I moved to Nashville. Since I’ve been here, I’ve been involved in some way (mostly music prep.) working on projects for artists as diverse as Nanci Griffith, Bob Seger, Ronan Tynan, the Nashville Symphony, Vince Ambrosetti, J.C. Chasez, Rick Trevino and Josh Turner, producers such as Brown Bannister and Peter Collins, and a number of other projects (Disney’s High School Musical, for one). I’ve also done a lot of song transcriptions, working on everything from on a Hebrew songbook to an Evangelical church’s youth choir musical to a musical based on the book of Tobit (from the Apocrypha), besides some arranging, composing, and web design on the side.
I’m looking forward to the next 6 months.
Congrats, man! Keep up the good work. And I’ve actually enjoyed the last few posts, I’ve just been too busy to respond. It’s all really great stuff. Keep it coming.
I’ve been here (Nashville area) since May 2005. Loving it madly, myself.
Like Cach, I stop in here and read regularly, even if I rarely comment.
Did you attend IKON meetings regularly? I know I’ve seen you make reference to attending them before. I was just curious, because you might know my daughter if you did — she was a regular there since late last year.
Since we’re in the same neck of the woods, we should meet up sometime and hang out or something… I mean, if you’d be interested in that sort of thing (what, with me being an old guy and stuff…).
Hey man! sounds like you’ve had a great time so far. Hope you have 20 more years of increased success. You can’t have fun unless you take a chance or two. What did you do with the Nashville Symphony? Didn’t know they had one. I knew there was a Nashville opera but hadn’t heard of Symphony. I bet they are pretty good. ?
Seth – I know that just within the last week or two, they opened up a brand new, super-cool world class symphony center in downtown Nashville. (I believe the Symphony existed long before that, but getting such a nice place to play is a big deal…)
It looks absolutely amazing – even though I’m sort of uncultured, I’m definitely planning on taking my wife down there and taking in a performance at some point.
Seth, I’ve done music prep. for two Nashville Symphony concerts. One was for their July 4th patriotic concert, and the other was for their Ray Charles tribute concert this weekend.
The Symphony’s new hall, which opened on the 9th, cost $123.5 million. I haven’t been yet, but I may go this weekend.
Random triva fact: The second concert in the new hall, on the 10th, featured Amy Grant. During the concert, it was announced that the main stage had been named the “Amy Grant Performance Platform”. During the late 80’s, the Symphony was on strike and deeply in debt when Amy paired with them and did several fundraising concerts, turning all the money over to them (over $1 million). So it’s possible Nashville wouldn’t have a symphony orchestra if not for Amy Grant.
I love Amy Grant. She has taken way more than her fair share of criticism, going all the way back to the 80’s when she (gasp!) started putting out crossover records that got airplay on mainstream (read: not Christian) radio stations (oh, the horror!).
She’s made mistakes and she’s a sinner saved by grace, just like the rest of us, but she has also touched more people and impacted more lives than most people can ever hope to.
Stephen – Yeah, I think that for the big kickoff bash that they had for the grand opening of the new hall, tickets were something like $1500 a piece, right? Any idea what the cost will typically be, now that it’s open? I’m hoping it’s a lot less than that.
I heard of a few people finding bargin tickets for the grand opening of the new hall for only $800, but I think most tickets were around $2,500. Not really a surprise, seeing that there were more than 30 individual donars that gave over $1 million each.
Fortunately, tickets for most of the concerts start at $30 or $35. But when I was looking at the symphony’s website this week, it said several of the concerts have already sold out. So it would be smart to plan ahead if you hope to catch any concerts there this year.
You know that it just the coolest information I have heard all week. That whole Amy Grant-Symphony Bit. Did you know that Sir Elton does a scholarship concert for the Students at the Royal Acad. of Music every year? He raises an obscene amount for student Scholarships and the students get to play a concert with him. Fun stuff.
Once again Stephen, that is great that the work has been while you have been there. Hope it doubles and triples in the next years.