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Melanie Guerin
Jan 17, 20244 min read
My Teacher
Reading all the tributes to Glen Adsit on Facebook over the last day, I’ve been reflecting on what an honor it is to have been in the...
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Melanie Guerin
Jan 9, 20222 min read
New Band Commission, part 7
Friday, January 7, 2022 (morning) Snow day! I decided to spend the extra time off working on the second movement. I got a cute little...
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Melanie Guerin
Jan 2, 20222 min read
New Band Commission, part 6: Bleep, blip, ding (Second Movement)
Tuesday, December 28, 2021 I spent the afternoon listening to a bunch of video game music so I could get some ideas for the second...
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Melanie Guerin
Dec 27, 20214 min read
New Band Commission, part 5: First Movement
Wednesday, December 22, 2021 I woke up this morning with a secondary motive in my head, to pair with the “Are you trying” motive. And as...
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Melanie Guerin
Dec 11, 20215 min read
New Band Commission, part 4: Cooking up ideas
also Friday, December 10 (but later) When I write music, I usually use one of three methods. Sometimes (rarely), a song feels like it...
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Melanie Guerin
Dec 10, 20213 min read
New Band Commission, part 3: Meeting the band
Friday, December 10 I visited Bristow today and met with the 7th and 8th grade bands. They played parts of two winter concert pieces for...
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Melanie Guerin
Nov 30, 20213 min read
New Band Commission, part 2: It's a go!
Tuesday, November 9, 2021 Got a text from Cliff this afternoon that just said: “WE GOT IT!!!!” We spoke on the phone later that evening,...
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Melanie Guerin
Sep 29, 20212 min read
New Band Commission, part 1: An idea
I got a commission to write a piece for the Bristow Middle School Band in West Hartford, and since part of the grant that supports the...
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Melanie Guerin
Jul 30, 20197 min read
Leaving Scottsboro
Like many (most?) white people, I haven’t spent much of my life thinking about being white. I grew up in a small, almost entirely white...
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Melanie Guerin
Jun 17, 20193 min read
The Scottsboro Boys (3/3)
Jim Crow came from Africa. He was a mythical creature, a shape-shifting trickster in the form of a bird, who lived in the stories and...
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Melanie Guerin
Jun 12, 20192 min read
The Scottsboro Boys (2/3)
The entertainment of a minstrel show really began hours before the curtain went up, as the troupe paraded from the train station to their...
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Melanie Guerin
Jun 4, 20192 min read
The Scottsboro Boys (1/3)
This is the first of three posts providing some background about my current show, "The Scottsboro Boys," which runs June 28-Aug 4 at...
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Melanie Guerin
Jan 13, 20198 min read
Yeah, it's important
In 2004, I was a first-year music teacher in a magnet middle school in East Hartford. Any public school educator will tell you that the...
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Melanie Guerin
Dec 17, 201810 min read
Why Everyone Should Study Conducting
I’ve recently been reflecting on how so much of my work as a teacher and an artist is focused toward the simple goal of being more human....
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Melanie Guerin
Nov 18, 20188 min read
Thoughts on Music Directing
WHAT IS IT? I don’t think anybody knows what music directing is. I often hear/read music director colleagues lamenting that we seem to be...
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Melanie Guerin
Oct 28, 20186 min read
Hip-hop conductor
This past Wednesday night I made my debut on the stage of Mortenson Hall, the largest of the spaces at the Bushnell Performing Arts...
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Melanie Guerin
Sep 23, 20181 min read
Hartford Magazine feature
I was recently included in a Hartford Magazine feature on the thriving arts scene in Hartford. It was fun to arrive at the group photo...
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Melanie Guerin
Sep 12, 20185 min read
Things I've Learned from Running
This past Sunday I completed my 10th half marathon. I expected it to be an unpleasant slogfest due to the fact that my training runs had...
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Melanie Guerin
Aug 5, 20181 min read
When things go wrong
More and more, we rely on technology to make our art. Sometimes I marvel at the sheer number of bells and whistles that go into putting...
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