Return from sabbatical!

Before Dawn - Federico Garcia Lorca
But like love
the archers
are blind.

Above the green night
arrows
leave traces of ardent
lily.

The keel of the moon
rips purple clouds
and the quivers
fill with dew.

Oh, but like love
the archers
are blind!

I read this poem on Monday morning, March 31, as I awoke at 4:00 AM with my mind spinning about returning to work after 6 months away. I feel a little like the blind archer, but I am excited about getting back to teaching, working with students and colleagues, and being on campus again.

The sabbatical is over. It has been an extremely rewarding and busy 6 months. Read on in the blog for a detailed blog about our month in Spain studying flamenco and absorbing the culture.

I was on sabbatical from September 15, 2007 - March 30, 2008. It sure went by fast! Highlights of my time away from Southern Oregon University include:

September-October:
Finished up the world premiere musical Tracy's Tiger at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Here is a pic of part of my crazy setup - I think I counted 35 instruments!



Here is the whole band. We had a "name the band" competition with the actors. The winning name - The Alunatics! (Inspired by a line in the play.)














In November I prepared for a set of concerts with my multi-media quintet, Sonoluminescence. We did three concerts at the Black Swan Theatre in Ashland. Great fun, as always. Visit the Sonoluminescence website for some images, sounds, and video.


December - early January was spent in Spain. Scroll down the blog entries for detailed descriptions and pictures of that adventure!

When I returned to Ashland in January, I immediately started rehearsals for The Clay Cart, a new adaptation of a 2000 year old Sanskrit Drama debuting at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival this year. It runs until November 2! Here is a picture of the Clay Cart Trio - Ed Dunsavage (guitar, sarod, oud), Tessa Brinckman (flute, alto flute, piccolo, and wooden head joint flute), and myself (tabla, udu, cajón, gongs, percussion). The show is really fun with great music by Andre Pluess. Dig the turban! Come see it if you can!

Tessa and I also comprise the flute/percussion duo Caballito Negro. We make our debut April 20 in Portland, perform again there on the 22nd, and then here in Ashland on May 5. Our program is great fun - music by Howard Hersh, Gareth Farr, David P. Jones, Máximo Diego Pujol, Isang Yun, and Terry Longshore (who is he?). For those of you in the Portland or Ashland areas, we hope you will join us for one or more of these concerts. Check my website for time/location details.

I've also been jamming with my good friend and person who introduced me to flamenco, guitarist Grant Ruiz. It's been fun putting my new cajón and knowledge to work! We have some things planned for the near future as well.

Well...there it is. I started back to work last week at SOU and it has been great to be with the students again. The percussion ensemble is working on an exciting program for our June 2 concert featuring music by John Cage, Lou Harrison, Johanna Beyer, James Tenney, Beethoven/Paul Bissel, Emmanuel Séjourné, and Peter Garland.

Thanks for reading!