Now on Facebook

Facebook and CDBaby have teamed up to allow for direct streaming and purchase from Facebook.  Go to facebook.com/musicbyevan  to find it!  You can listen to clips of Healing Waters, see the Healing Waters music video, make comments and mark the ones that you like.  Hope to see you there!

Merch Available

I finally got Zazzle to re-post my t-shirt, featuring the Healing Waters cd cover art, front and back.  You can find it here:  zazzle.com/musicbyevan.  There's also a mug, bumper sticker and a t-shirt with "Music By Evan" on it.  Hope you like them.


create & buy custom products at Zazzle

Musings and Dreams

After such a successful day at Messiah, the dream is alight in me again.  The latest musing?

Set up a month-long road trip, hitting churches all along the way.

It would take a lot of work and planning, but it's otherwise a simple idea.  Many churches have services serveral days a week, so I wouldn't be stuck with only Sundays.  I could stop at one church on a Wednesday, move on and see the next one on a Friday, followed by a Saturday and a Sunday.  If I planned it appropriately, I might even see some of the same churches more than once and visit one of their other services.

How would it work with each church?
- I would play one or two highlight songs, especially my arrangement of Amazing Grace.
- I would not ask to be paid for my time, just for the opportunity to promote and sell my CD.
- I would ask that the church announce that I was coming a week or two in advance to assist with this process, as the CDs will cover my gas and food expenses.
- I would give 10-20% of the CD sales back to each respective church.

As I can can think of them, here's a list of needs:
- A booking agent to plan this whole trip and make it work as well as come along and help on the trip.
- Places to stay along the way.  Many churches can provide this amenity.
- Each church would need to have it's own piano (rare to not have one, I suppose)
- A plan to have clean clothes through the whole trip.

I'm drawing a blank for now, but I'm sure I'll revisit this later.

Church of the Messiah

I just recently returned from playing in two of the traditional services at the Church of the Messiah United Methodist in Westerville, Ohio.  A few months after the release of "Healing Waters" I spoke with the pastor, Jim, about playing a couple pieces at his church to help promote my CD.  We know each other from when he was the pastor at a church I attended when living in Troy.  He was excited to have me come by.

The end result was a huge success.  The response was very positive and a great start to what I hope is a continuing relationship with the church.

Silas

Many of you may already know this information from Facebook or another means of contact.  I lost my youngest nephew, Silas.  As you might imagine, there are many mixed feelings.  I am in awe of the response from all of the friends and family surrounding Silas.

In the meantime, I turned to my piano and asked the spirits of creativity to give me Silas, if even for a moment, so that I could put in music what I could never describe in words about how I feel.  There is a link on the right side of this page that will allow you to hear, "For Silas."

Hold your family close.

RSS Feed updated

I have put only the commission pieces on my feed for now.  There's a brand new one up that was commissioned by Team G(race) for an upcoming YouTube Ad they will be promoting soon.  I had two inspirations in writing this piece:  One, it needed to have a beat that you could run to and two, I decided to start the piece with a minor key and transition it to a major key to give the impression of accomplishment.  Comments are welcome!

Team G(race) spaghetti dinner

I had the honor of playing the dinner music for a Team G(race) event last night.  The turnout was impressive, the food was great and the atmosphere was tangible.  Congratulations, Brett, on a successful evening.

Thank you to everyone who came out to support me as well as this event and Team G(race).

First rehearsal of Amazing Grace

Last Thursday night was the first ever live rehearsal of "Amazing Grace," including 10 different instrumentalists.  This was not only the first rehearsal of that particular piece, it was my personal debut as an orchestral composer.

First of all, I would like to send out a general thank you to everyone involved in making this happen.  The entire orchestra, the director, lighting and sound, all of my musical consultants...  Secondly, I want to try and describe that evening as best I can, if only for me to be able to reflect on this later.

For so long, my music has been solely mine.  Many have heard it, but if I personally do not have a hand (or two) in creating it, my music would not exist in the world.  But now, my music exists in a different form.  Here are ten people who are involved in making this piece come to life.  I have been to concerts before, I have been in awe of and envied the Yanni's of the world (still am, actually), I have even written pieces for more than just piano before, but here, for the first time, I feel like the soul of my music is out of my hands; it has been shared with a larger group of people to help me give it away to the world.  While freeing and exciting, I am extremely anxious.

I wanted Thursday night to last for hours and hours, but, in reality, it was only about thirty minutes.  The point at which I started "recording" the memory in my head is when the glockenspiel player started practicing his part.  I decided to hide my cell phone, forget what time it was and just soak in the experience as it unfolded in front of me.  I want to describe the evening in my inner voice as if it's happening right now:

The glockenspiel player is already here, as is the director, but now the other players are starting to arrive.  I don't know any of them by looking at them but I know names and the instruments attached to them since I've been staring at a checklist of the instruments I need for the past six months, but here they are.  They're actually here - to play my music!  Oh!  That's the oboist...  I've heard good things about her.  Should I introduce myself?  Probably.  I'm not sure how though.  There's one of the violinists... 

"You must be Evan."  She puts out her hand to shake mine.

"That I am."

"I'm Jan."

"Jan!  It's great to meet you finally."

There's another violinist...  Oh - and that must be the violist.  And that's definitely the cello (that's hard to miss).  Both of the flutes are here...  That's everyone, except...  Wait...  Where's the horn player?  Ah - arriving none too soon.

The strings are starting to warm up.  It's such a classic sound, hearing them strike each string in perfect fourths (well, after they've tuned their instruments).  I play a tuning note for them to match.  This is really happening.  Finally.  The other instruments begin tuning and warming up as well.  It's a cold evening so their pieces are cold and not keeping in tune as they normally would, but I don't really care.  It's no different than seeing past the disgusting process of bringing a child into the world and seeing your newborn child before you (or so I'm told)...  I only see the good part of the moment that is unfolding in front of me.

We're ready to begin.  The director announces the piece and tells everyone that it was arranged by the gentleman sitting behind the piano while pointing in my direction.  I just smile and nod my head in recognition.  While this is a huge moment for me I feel like I don't want to overplay my hand or make it seem to these musicians that this is really the first time that I've done this; that in fact, they are guinea pigs.

The director takes a few moments to point out some key queues for the musicians.  He tells the glockenspiel that his entrance is right after the horn does this (singing the part) at measure 39.  He tells the flutes about their first entrance and the solo part's entrance.  After he's completed explaining the piece to the musicians, the director raises his hands as we are about to begin...  Some of us do, anyway.  I'm a little behind because I'm still enjoying the fact that the director has spent enough time with MY piece that he knows it as well as I do.  There's a huge sense of pride in this because I respect this director for what he does and what he's done.  I personally asked him to direct this piece and he accepted.  Ack - we're starting!

One musician starts on the first beat, one starts on the second...  Train wreck.  We get a few measures in and the director stops us, makes a few points and we start again.  The intro is, yet again, not working.  He decides to take us beyond the intro and begin from there saying we'll go back and work on the intro later.  I'm okay with that - I just want to hear this piece with live instruments and not the electronically emulated instruments I've heard for about a year now.

We play through the entire piece, but it's still rough.  I'm having trouble following the director as it's not something I'm used to doing anyway, the musicians are having trouble staying together and everything just seemed imbalanced.  Some of the listeners came to lift the lid on my piano, saying they couldn't really hear me at all.  This surprised me as normally I have a tendency to play too loudly, but okay, I'll try and project better.

The director makes a few comments to adjust the piece and correct the musicians and before I know it, we're ready for round two.  As we're playing through the piece I'm trying to balance playing the piece perfectly with watching the director and (and this is the biggest one) trying to listen to the entire composition just for my own satisfaction as a listener.  There are so many things I can't hear.  I can't hear the strings' pizzicato, I can't hear the cello's pickup note.  Oh well, that's why there's a director and this should be recorded anyway.  When we finished, there was applause from the small group of listeners (mostly other musicians and choir members involved in the following piece - in other words, potentially good people to retrieve critiques from).  I had a huge grin on my face (the entire night, but now I noticed it) and was ready for another run-through.  I could do this again and again and again and...

We're done for now?

Oh.

Darn.

Wow.  This really just happened.

I had more work to do that evening so I just had to move on, but I was in a type of shock, I suppose, as it hadn't really sunken in.  I don't think it has gotten to me even yet, but the performance is still yet to come tomorrow.

After we left the church I had the opportunity to talk to another man that I greatly respect musically (among other things).  He lit the spark under me that is now my next goal.  This is normal for me:  I achieve one goal and immediately know what the next is.  I'm sure you'll hear about the next goal soon enough.

That evening, I retired back to my mom's home.  The entire ride home (ignoring the entire six-month setup for the purpose of this writing) she and her husband had endured my excessive and excited rambling about how awesome the experience had been.  This continued even after arriving home, but I was handed a glass of Scotch on the rocks by my step father as a huge congratulations.  He then shared with me what the evening had meant to him.  I had never really considered what effect this would have on others close to me, so thank you, Stan.  Your experience and that fact that you shared it with me means so much.

I am truly looking forward to Sunday's performance of "Amazing Grace."  I plan to post about it here as well as try to include a video of the event for those who couldn't be here for it.

Until next time, keep reaching for your dreams,

Evan

Healing Waters on YouTube

I've created a video tonight so that I can publish Healing Waters on YouTube.  Here's the link - I hope you enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t7tve1oLlU

Plato

Music...gives wings to the mind, a soul to the universe, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, a life to everything.

Q&A with Bluebirdbaby

I sponsored Bluebirdbaby (see link down on the right) for the month of February and in return, Erin asked me some fantastic questions to respond to.  The Q&A can be found here.

Hope you enjoy them!

Evan

Upcoming debut

For those who know me well, it is hard to hide my glee as an upcoming event draws near.  Since I was a little kid, I've had big dreams.  I dreamed of playing soccer in a stadium so I would have at least four shadows.  I dreamed of being a fighter pilot (turns out I'm colorblind...  oh well - war doesn't suit me anyway).  I also dream (not dreamed) of sharing my music with the world with a group of passionate artists interested in performing that music with me.  It's one thing to play solo piano for an audience of any size - it's one of my favorite things to do.  But I have come to truly enjoy and crave playing music with other people.  Now that I have finally brought my music out into the world as more than just piano, I seek every opportunity to play my music with an orchestra with me on the piano.  There's a synergy involved in working with a group of people all passionate about the same thing.

And now, for the first time, I will be playing the piano in an original arrangement of Amazing Grace set for a 9-piece accompaniment on April 3rd.  I know this will only serve as a teaser for me; I'll be looking for bigger and better events.  That said, I cannot help but think about this upcoming event every single day.

I pose a question to you and please feel free to post a comment in answer:

What dreams did you have as a child and did you achieve, abandon or adjust those dreams?
What dreams do you have now?

If you can't answer the second question, I urge you to practice dreaming.  I have been taught that dreaming is a skill.  You can get better at dreaming or that skill can diminish.  You can start small.  You don't even have to share your dreams with anyone if you feel that they're silly or petty, but if you personally know someone who is a dreamer, I'm sure they'd be happy to hear your dreams and help you along with them.

Dream well,
Evan

T-Shirts Available

Thanks to Lucy Ellen Smith for putting this together!  I just got my own in the mail about a week ago and I'm loving it (and regularly fearing that I will stain it).  Here's the link to the t-shirts.

Zazzle has seen fit to take the shirt off of their website due to copyright issues...  I'm working to resolve this issue.

Bluebirdbaby Guests

I'd like to send out a big thanks to everyone visiting from bluebirdbaby.  This blog is dedicated to helping me share my music with the world.  Recently, I released a new CD, "Healing Waters," so there's a lot of talk on this site regarding that release.  You can find samples of the music by following the links on the left.  You can also find some samples on this page of some works in progress, including a new piano piece, as well as a commissioned piece for a DVD release.  Neither of them are done yet, but I'm okay sharing my rough edges with you.

I hope you'll come back and visit often.  I will continue to update the samples of music by improving on what's already there as well as adding to the list.

Thanks again for visiting.

Evan

Martial Arts

I just added a song that's quite a work in progress.  I've been asked to bid for a project by putting together a sample song.  This is nothing like Healing Waters, mind you, but it's a ton of fun putting it together.

My studio is up and running - so far...

Take one part deep-seeded need, one part incentive and one part frustratingly long hours trying to fix a problem that you can't locate only for it to somehow fix itself without me doing anything and voila - I have my home studio up and running!  I expect to get several e-mails from manufacturers and retailers trying to fix the problem I was having.  I figure it will be a good learning experience so I won't have to depend on luck in the future.

Anyway, as with any new toy, I stayed up later than I expected tonight just so I could play with it right away.  The result is a thirty second sample of my first attempt at a bid submission.  I've been asked to compose some music for an upcoming DVD and I've only got a couple of weeks to make a decision on my submission.  I'm not worried...  At least, not now that I have my studio functioning.

I'll post some pictures soon; I'm self-conscious enough to want to do some cleaning up first.  Till then, thanks for reading!

Available almost anywhere!

Most of the digital distribution companies (a fancy way of saying online stores who sell mp3s) are either setup already or will be shortly, but I wanted to mention a couple of specific places that were just setup recently:

iTunes and Amazon mp3!

The iTunes pricing is the same as all the other vendors, but Amazon has posted a cheaper price of $8.99 for the entire CD in mp3.

Keep in mind, if you want to have the pdf files of the album art, you will have to buy the mp3 package from CD Baby.

Evan

Links!

I've got links now! See? Look to the left!

Just to say thanks...

The CD is now available online!

Digstation.com - for digital download only: $0.99 per song, or $9.99 for the whole CD and album artwork, designed by Lucy Ellen Smith (Lucyellensmith.com)

CDBaby.com - Physical CD purchase: $12.97 each, and get a 20% discount for multi-CD purchases!

Or, you can, as I've mentioned in earlier posts, contact me via e-mail to arrange payment and shipment of your own CD from my stock. If you don't like payments over the internet, this option allows you to send a check or money order by mail.



I'd like to take a moment to mention some key people who helped make this CD really come to life the way I dreamed it would.

Mom - I don't know how many times you listened to the unedited, unfinished, unpolished version of Healing Waters, but you definitely heard more than your share. I thank you for stretching yourself to be respectfully critical of my work and share your honest opinion about my artistic choices. Without your constant reminder that I can and should be doing more with the gifts I've been given, I don't know that Healing Waters would exist yet - at least not in the form it's in now. Even after production of the CD is done, you continue to dream alongside me and help me to keep pushing forward. Thank you.

Aaron - On the surface, yes, you made available your home, your office, your time and your privacy so that I could work on Healing Waters almost every weekend for nearly six months. That aside, I'm not sure I have said in succinct-enough terms how much I respect you. I leave that comment vague, because even though I want to specifically mention a few key points, those points are such a small sample of why I respect and look up to you. Firstly, and the most pertinent, your musical talent demands my respect. If music is the Matrix, you are Neo. You have such a vast understanding of not just music itself, but of the industry and how music affects people. I know I can always trust your opinion and, this being the second major point, I can always trust that you will give me your honest opinion. And yet, you are readily aware of whether I want or need to hear that opinion. You are a powerful ally to have and I could not ask for a better brother.

Stan - Indispensable, enabler, supporting foundation, always putting others first. I claim that without my mother's support, Healing Waters would not have turned out as it did. To go one step further, without your presence, my mother would not necessarily have been in a position to offer that support. And all the while, you are quietly, in your own way, rooting for the home team; we hear your cheers. While you may communicate with words and body language like we all do, you have a very strong gift of communicating beyond conventional means. You have a sort of "soul subtext" to anything you say that is meant to positively impact the world and people around you. It passes all barriers. So when I say it speaks volumes to me that you took valuable time to not only listen to my works in progress but offer ideas, criticism and even your impressions, I hope you understand how much that means to me.

Aunt Lucy - It has been a joy getting to know you on a such a different level than ever before. As this is the first real interaction we've shared beyond a holiday weekend since I've been an adult, it's been a truly eye-opening pleasure; to see how your channel your creativity and how you manage it; to see what it takes to be a layout design artist working with someone who's dream isn't even fully established; to just getting a sliver of a glance at who you really are. Yes, thank you for making the art come alive beyond just paint on a CD, but I want you to know that it has meant more than just a new CD to me.

There are so many other people who played indirect roles; roles of support, guidance, sharing in my excitement; roles where you may not have ever heard the CD until now... These other roles are no less important than the tangible ones and I hate not being able to mention everyone, but I can't figure a way to mention a few without having the list grow out of control.

To be honest, it's late, I'm tired and this blog has been especially difficult and energy-draining to write. That said, even though it took me until 3:30am to complete, it was worth every minute of it just to say thanks.

Now accepting Paypal

Ok - I've got everything setup now to accept payments by Paypal for CDs you would like to have shipped to you.

Here's how you do it:

There used to be a list here, now you can just click the button at the top of the page!

Make sure your mailing address in Paypal's file is up to date, as that's the address I will use to ship your CD.

Healing Waters

So Healing Waters is now in my possession! The completed product looks great and I can't wait to share it with everyone. Right now I'm tying up loose ends regarding keeping track of sales, taxes, finding a promoter, etc, but one week will be enough. The official release date is 1/11/11. I kid you not, I picked a Tuesday nearest the amount of time I thought I would need to get everything together and I didn't even know what the date was until AFTER I picked that day. What a great date though, right?

I've set up a new e-mail address just for inquiries about my music, sales, playing at events, etc. musicbyevan@gmail.com.

CDs are set at $10 each. If they need to be shipped, add $3 for shipping. If you need multiple CDs, the shipping with change based on how many you need.