Monday, September 14 2015: Catching-up with Casey Cangelosi

Monday, September 14 2015

CATCHING-UP with CASEY CANGELOSI

Composer, educator, and percussionist Casey Cangelosi is an inspiring musician, writing works that are groundbreaking and innovative, and performing at some of today’s most recognized festivals (the PiteD Percussion Repertoire Festival in PiteD, Sweden; the 2010 International Marimba Festival in Minneapolis, Minnesota; the 2011 Zeltsman Marimba Festival in Appleton, Wisconsin; PASIC 2011 in Indianapolis, Indiana; and the Zivkovich International Marimba and Percussion Summer Academy in Engers, Germany.) Cangelosi maintains an active schedule visiting schools across the country. Casey Cangelosi earned his Bachelor of Music at Utah State University; and a Master of Music at The Boston Conservatory & Rice University.

CURRENT PROJECTS

Casey writes, “I have a lot of thanks to give for some recent commissions: An ensemble arrangement of the marimba solo, White Knuckle Stroll, was commissioned and premiered by the University of Missouri at the Midwest Conference in Chicago last December. 2015 commissions include a three movement timpani and piano duet titled Ghoul Theater for timpani and piano by Bill Shaltis and Cristoforo Pasquale, Tap Oratory for Aaron Trumborne, and The Big Audition for Keith Aleo.”

RECENT APOINTMENT AT JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY

Congratulations to Casey on his recent appointment at James Madison University. He’ll be starting in the Fall 2015, and he’s “very excited to do so.” Casey further states, “I think it's going to be fantastic; Harrisonburg is the perfect city for us and campus is beautiful. It's amazing to see the wonderful lifetime of work that Bill Rice has done at James Madison University.” For years   students have requested to study with him at MM and even DMA levels, and now Cangelosi can finally fulfill those requests.”

 http://www.caseycangelosi.com

-Daniel Smithiger (BSP Education Consultant)

Sunday, September 13 2015: The Continuous Cycle


After dinner this evening, I worked for awhile on Thomas' Merlin (2nd movement). I am continually reminded why the composition is wonderful, standing the test of time -30 years. Along with works from Abe Bach, and Daughtrey, my work on marimba is still cut-out.

The summer of 2015 proved to be productive. I made progress on learning solo marimba works (some mentioned above) in preparation for a marimba recital "tour", along with running another great year of the Percussion Institute at SIUE, and planning for the eventually successful 1st annual SIUE Marching Percussion Festival in late August. Black Swamp Percussion had another magnificent year of entries for its Percussion Ensemble Showcase and Solo Multiple Percussion Showcase (Working with Andy Bliss and Eric Willie in the early part of the summer, we reviewed several entries of top quality, making our decisions to pick only a select amount of winners difficult.)

We are in week 4 at SIU Edwardsville. Time has gone extremely fast! SIUE Percussion is working on some great pieces for Percussion Ensemble, SIUE STEEL is preparing for gigs later this semester, and another trip to perform with the Hatters Pan Orchestra in Trinidad (2016) is in the fundraising & planning stages. Meanwhile, students are beginning to flourish and develop, additional departmental duties and service is ongoing, regional judging and clinics are around the corner, preparation for upcoming collaborative performances with colleagues is exciting, and PASIC 2016 is in San Antonio....Onward and upward, as they say.
-Daniel Smithiger (BSP Education Consultant)