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, 2022
- 2 min
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, 2021
- 4 min
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, 2021
- 5 min
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, 2021
- 3 min
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, 2021
- 3 min
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 30, 2021
- 2 min
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, 2019
- 7 min
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, 2019
- 3 min
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, 2019
- 2 min
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, 2019
- 2 min
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, 2019
- 8 min
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, 2018
- 10 min
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, 2018
- 8 min
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, 2018
- 6 min
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, 2018
- 1 min
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 13, 2018
- 5 min
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, 2018
- 1 min
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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Melanie Guerin
- Aug 1, 2018
- 1 min
In the Heights at Playhouse on Park
7/30-18 I was so pleased to have finally gotten the call to music direct a show at my neighborhood theater, where I have worked as a sub...
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