R. Christopher Teichler, Composer: News

What a great experience the conference was! I met some great people and made some good new contacts. Everyone was very kind and gracious, and more than willing to be helpful. This was a great step for me to take, and will hopefully lead to more opportunities down the road. I'm already looking forward to next year!

Today was the first day of exhibiting at the WMEA conference in Madison, WI (there's PACKERS stuff everywhere!!?!). My friend Steve Kroeze and I have been manning the "Teichler" booth today, and will again tomorrow.

I have scores of almost all of my pieces available for people to look at and full length recordings of them to listen to if they wish.

I'm hoping to get some exposure of my music to more people, and I think that this will help. Those who stopped and listened/looked at my music spoke very favorably!

One more day tomorrow, then back to Chicago in the afternoon. I'll let you know how day 2 went as well!

Promenade, the piece I wrote for the wedding of my friends Steve and Alison, will be performed on the Trinity Community Philharmonic Orchestra on November 2, 2007. The concert is 7PM at the Arnold T. Olson Chapel on the campus of Trinity International University. Other pieces will include music of Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Beethoven. $8/$5.

Yep, I've got a blog. Doesn't everybody? If you're interested it's at http://composerchris.wordpress.com/. Mostly I'm using it to share my thoughts on music today.

TRN has SINFONIETTA included in their newest orchestral catalog. The score and parts look great! They will be selling it for $50. Please tell any of your friends/colleauges about this piece!!

I had a new piece performed at church today; a setting of PSALM 113. I scored it for chamber orchestra and soprano. It went well; Sarah, my wonderful wife, was a last minute substitution for the soprano part, and she nailed it! I was so proud of her, she never ceases to amaze me!

OK, so I was going to journal everyday, but time got away from me! In summary, all of my visits went really well. I visited Hill, Still and Granger middles schools this week, talking about LEGACY, and about composing in general. The students were so receptive! They have great teachers in a great program. LEGACY will be performed on Saturday May 20 at Waubonsie Valley High School around 2:30. Please come!

On Saturday May 19th, LEGACY will be performed at the Aurora Fine Arts Festival by the orchestras of Hill, Still and Granger Middle schools and the 9th grade orchestras of Waubonsie Valley HS. Each day this week I will visit one of these schools and work on the piece, talk about composing, and get to know the students. Today I visited Waubonsie; it was my first time back since MEET THE ARTIST back in May. It was nice to be back and see familiar faces. Mr. Will Burck continues to be a great supporter and teacher to me! I've learned a lot about writing for strings from him.

Tomorrow I visit Hill Middle School in Naperville, IL. More later....

This weekend marked the completion of my interim position at Wheaton College as the Symphonic Band director. It was very bittersweet; I was so proud of the band and the job we did together this year, and was sad to go. I knew it was interim from day 1, and tried not to get too personally connected, but to no avail. It was a wonderful experience, and I am richer for it.

Next fall I will be the new orchestra director at Trinity International University in Deerfield, IL. This will be my first orchestra gig, and it WON'T be INTERIM!!! I will be posting concert info and repertoire info as soon as I have it.

At long last, I have recordings of my band piece SOJOURN posted for listening. To hear these please go to my music page. Tell your friends!! Especially if they're band directors!!!!!

Yep, you can visit my new 'my space' page to get even more info and details about me and my music.

I began working on a new piece today for full orchestra. I'm using an old plainsong which I found in a hymnal named JESU DUCLIS MEMORIA. It is a gorgeous tune, and I immediately wanted to do something with it as soon as I found it. I've had this on the back-burner for about a year now, but I finally started work!

I'm planning that the piece will be accessible and playable for good high school programs and up.

Indian Prairie School District has commissioned me to compose a piece for their Fine Arts Fest in May. LEGACY, for string orchestra, is the fulfillment of that commission. The piece will be performed by 3 middle schools and the the Waubonsie Valley Gold Campus orchestras. I was very honored to accept this commission because it is to honor the legacy of the district's retiring superintendent Howard Crouse.

Hi all, I learned this last week that three of my arrangments, WONDROUS LOVE (Flute and Piano), MEDITATION ON ST. ANNE (Trumpet and Piano), and GIVE ME JESUS (Flute, Trumpet, Piano) are going to be published by World Library Publications, based in Franklin Park, IL. Not only did they like the pieces, but they asked for more! I don't have a time-table yet for their publication, but hopefully it will be in the next year. I will post more info as soon as I have it. Thanks for reading!

I had a blast at WVHS last week. It was a great learning experience for me, and I hope for the students as well. The music faculty is amazing, and the students and parents should know how fortunate they are.

I've missed going there this week! I started to feel like part of the family there. I hope to make it back over the next few years to see how this years freshman class has grown and matured.

Thanks for everything, WVHS!

On Monday morning I will start my week-long "meet the artist" residency at WVHS in Aurora. I am very much looking forward to this; it's the first time I have ever done anything like this; hopefully the first of many to come. I am excited to share my knowledge, insight, and experience with the talented students at WVHS. I'm sure that I'll learn more from them than they will from me.

If you are able to come to the concert on Thursday Jan. 11 at 7:30, please do! Four of my pieces will be performed, including the world premiers of FANTASY ON AN AMERICAN HYMN and AMERICAN ANTHEM.

Happy New Year!

Hi everyone; I am very excited to have this new site up and running. It is better for me and hopefully for all of you as well! Before I only had snippets of my pieces availble for your hearing, but now I will have full length recordings of most of my works available! Plus, I will have links set up to the different publishers that my works can be purchased. Please feel free to contact me at any time, and sign the guest book! I'd love to know who's visiting! Happy New Year!