Friday, May 24, 2013 Register
     
 
New Projects  

Instrumentral Jazz Arranging

The book co-written by my mentor, Dr. John Wilson and myself, "Instrumental Jazz Arranging - A Comprehensive and Practical Guide" has been in print for about a year or so now and has garnered some great feedback.  Many thanks to all who have purchased it.

 

I am working on two sets of updates for the templates.  Since Finale's architecture has changed significantly sice we wrote the book, I am reworking both the assignment and group templates so that they are compatible with Finale 2011.  Also, we originally planned to have the templates in Sibelius format as well.  I will be working on these also and will let you know when they will be available.

What's New


Happy Holidays!! 

I am very proud to report of the wonderful susccess of our concert, "A Love Remembered - A Concert in Memory of Nancy Tomaro" that was presented on Monday, December 5, 2011 at Duquesne University's Mary Pappert School of Music in the Thomas Pappert Performance Center.   I was joined on stage by my musical friends Max Leake, Paul Thompson, Tom Wendt, Marty Ashby, Jay Ashby, Maureen Budway, and Jeff Mangone (still sorry your name was omitted from teh program, Jeff).  Also featured that night was our oldest daughter Natalie (15), debuting as a jazz and pop vocalist and our younger daughter Andrea (12), who gave a very moving recitation on her thoughts about mom.  It was very cathartic for me to celebrate our life together with so many family members and friends.  Even more importantly is the fact that we raised over $3,000 for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.  Many, many thanks to the musicians, attendees, those who couldn't make the concert but sent donations, and the staff at the music school for their wonderful support.

 

I plan to make this fundraiser a yearly event involoving the entire Pittsburgh jazz community.  It will most likely be presented in November, which is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month.  By the way, if you are interested in donating to PANCAN, feel free to visit their website at www.pancan.org.

 

Eventually, I will be recording selected songs from the concert for a CD.  It will most likely be a little while yet, as I am still recovering from an attack of bells palsy, which hit me on June 2nd.  Not a fun thing for a horn player.  Thankfully, I am playing again, partially due to the work of my good friend baritone saxophonist and master woodwind repairman Jim Germann, who outifitted all my mouthpieces with a piece of foam on the left side that helps close the gap created by the small remaining area that lacks muscle control.

 

If you happen to be in the Pittsburgh area on Sunday, December 18th, please come check out the Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra Holiday Concert at the August Wilson Center at 6 PM.

 

As you will see by looking at my schedule, it's travel season again.  I hope to see many of you at the Jazz Education Network Concerence in Louisville, KY at the beginning of January.

 

Thanks for stopping by,

 

MT