Nicole DeMaio Music | Black Sheep Blog #2
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Black Sheep Blog #2

October 24, 2016

Black Sheep Blog #2

Wow! It has been quite some time since my last update here. Finishing grad school really took a lot out of me, and now that I’m out in the “real world” I’m able to find time to blog a bit more.

Black Sheep presented our inaugural concert this past January at The Boston Conservatory. We commissioned works by Paul Fake, Dylan Varner-Hartley, Daniel J. Choi, and Ryan Fossier and had a great time presenting new music to an enthusiastic audience, both live and via Livestream! After this concert both Liam and I took some time to finish up the year and work on some other projects.

 

The good news is Black Sheep is back and ready to make music! Due to having such a busy schedule, Liam will be going inactive for a while to play some funky-fresh tuba around the Boston area with some great orchestras. With this came a change that we are very excited to announce:

Black Sheep is transitioning from a duo to a contemporary ensemble! So what exactly does this mean?

  1. We’ll be recruiting and auditioning new members. We will also be inviting many guest artists to play concerts with us while we build our roster. Keep a look out for calls for musicians in the near future.
  2. Our focus will still be on giving a voice to instruments which lack a large and varied repertoire.  This helps to keep us unique and to commission music for instruments who are all too often stuck performing the same works due to a lack of options.
  3. With the addition of new members, our ensemble will be creating many new positions to help run everything smoothly. I will be assuming the role of Artistic Director for the time being to help get the new Black Sheep ball rolling.

Since I’m not about to become a one-woman band here, I am excited to announce that Black Sheep is welcoming our first new member, Emma Staudache on horn! Emma received her BM from Ithaca College and her MM from The Boston Conservatory. Most recently, her horn quartet 4Play won the ensemble competition at the International Horn Society Symposium.

 

We are in the process of preparing our next call for scores and finding musicians to collaborate on this next concert with, but keep an eye out for more updates in the near future. As always, we love hearing from you, so feel free to contact us with any questions or comments!

 

  • Nicole