news and events...
2019
...finalizing plans with Quasar on a new commission and 2020 West Coast tour...
began an interesting stint as composer in residence for the Choir of Hope, founded and led by Dr. James Savage at Christ Our Hope Catholic Church...charged with writing music for the choir and creating works using electronics...reawakening my interest in granular synthesis ...breathe... for voices and flute and v e n i s a n c t e s p i r i t u s for the COH Latin Chant Ensemble and electronics were part of a powerful Pentecost service...
2018
Richard Craig performed os jústi at the Distat Festival in Choele Choel, Argentina...I guess I can now say that my music has been performed from Alaska to Patagonia...
...epifania was performed at University of Alaska - Fairbanks...
ensemble proton bern arrived for their West Coast Tour with performances at WWU, CWU, SPU, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and C4NM, featuring ...vebländeti [reflexion]... ...what an incredible adventure...they're such great musicians... "Donald J. Stewart's contribution to the international diversity of music is one of considerable importance..." --epb
My good friend Larry Bourgeios, known as The Patron Saint of Espresso came to Seattle to visit his old friend Kent Bakke and me...we had a great time visiting coffee houses and got a special tour of his warehouse...I learned so much about espresso from Larry and miss our visits at Old Saint George...which is also where I had my first opera performed...
...vebländeti [reflexion]... was performed in Bern, Switzerland at PROGR to kick off epb's America-Next Tour...
2017
...finished ...vebländeti [reflexion]... for ensemble proton bern...
...my dad died in May...it was awful...
...finalizing plans with ensemble proton bern to bring them to Seattle and the West Coast for a tour to kick off sound X...
I founded sound X...
2016
WCF partnered with Washington State University's Festival of Contemporary Art Music and Western Washington University and brought Magnus Andersson over for a tour...this time with his trio with Rohan de Saram and Elise Jacoberger...they performed TRASFIGURAZIONE...Rohan had booked another concert and couldn't perform at WWU...luckily Walter Gray, founding member of Kronos Quartet agreed to perform...
...Canadian percussionist Christopher Eagles commissioned epifania for large array and performed it at several universities in the Maritime provinces including Acadia University, Mount Allison University, and St. Thomas University...
...in the last part of 2015, I wrote RELATIO for Garth Knox and his remarkable Viola d'amore...who performed the piece in Vancouver for Vancouver New Music...received a nice review in Vancouver Classical Music...
2014
...received a wonderful fellowship from the Civita Institute to write a piece in Civita di Bagnoregio...I wrote trasfigurazione for Magnus Andersson (guitar), Rohan de Saram (cello) and Pascal Gallois (bassoon)...we're set to perform in Civita sometime next year...
...Aventa was here in March and performed crociFISSIONe for Transport, which I finished in February...it was a great performance...
2013
...while in Victoria, finalized commission and 2014 performances with Aventa and Bill Linwood on crociFISSIONe for 13 instruments...currently working through problems and techniques for the ensemble...love the word fission within the crocifissione...also links the location that I'd like to use for the multimedia part of PERPETUA...
......su innocent X... finished in January...WCF brought Quasar over in March for Transport...I went to Montreal (maybe the coolest city I've ever been to) in April and Victoria, BC in May for performances of ...su innocent X......
2012
...worked out all the details on a new piece ...su innocent X... with Quasar...spent a lot of time ruminating and developing ideas for the instruments...then it just poured out of me...
2011
...WCF brought Magnus Andersson over for a concert...we were lucky to have him...much talk about a small trio and our time with Donatoni...so many incredible stories...
...reworked the libretto for PERPETUA with Carl Waluconis...we cut the text allowing for more room to make sound and not just spit words...this process of finding vocalizations and vocal technique seems unending...
2010
...began discussions with Aventa about writing a piece for 11 instruments...I'm very excited about this..I met Bill Linwood in a coffee shop in Victoria a while ago and discussed this 'new ensemble' idea with Giorgio Magnanensi, by blind luck I feel like I was part of the group's inception...another connection there...have these ideas about a piece called CROCIFISSIONE, the same painter (Cristofano Roncalli) who painted the Trasfigurazione...in the sala where I met with Donatoni at the Accademia Chigiana...
...have been speaking with Magnus Andersson about a piece for guitar...I had a strong feeling about the guitar with a group of instruments and he mentioned his trio for guitar, bassoon and cello, with Rohan de Saram and Pascal Gallois, which sounds very interesting...Donatoni wrote Algo II for Magnus, so there's a nice connection there...even more so, I started to write a series of pieces, based on "anonymous" murals that had some impact on me while studying with Donatoni...the first piece based on one of the murals was ASCENSIONE, it turns out that the mural is actually the Trasfigurazione...hmmm...that seems to be the connection (and the title) to the new piece...Magnus is a really cool guy and I'll get him and his trio over here soon...
...starting out pretty well... Quasar just commissioned me for a piece, largely based on the work I did for Richard...
2009
...Richard Craig premiered my piece os jústi, in Stockholm at Fylkingen...Richard is an incredible performer and a better person...he also performed os jústi in Seattle as part of Washington Composers Forum's Transport Series...
...Cristina Valdes performed my piece cuoRE, which was finished (with Cristina's editing help) just in time for the concert...I've had a lot of interest in that piece, hmmm...
2008
...Quasar performed EMMAUS as part of Wayward Music Series, they really rocked...and they are super cool, too. I raised enough to pay the musicians, a big thanks to everyone involved...
2007
...earlier this year I accepted a position on the Board of Directors with the Washington Composers Forum. The WCF board is a good group of composers and performers with the initiative to promote new music, especially local music. The WCF just started a new concert series called Transport and the Quasar Saxophone Quartet from Montreal will play EMMAUS on the 29-May-2008 Transport Concert. os jústi, written for Scottish flautist Richard Craig was finished in September and contemplatio was completed in November.
2007
...21-February. Seattle University Student Center Atrium. Cellist Brad Hawkins performed a solo concert that included the premiere of aurolac, written for the cellist.
2006
...a relatively productive year. The Composer Spotlight, presented by the Washington Composers Forum and Jack Straw Productions, featured Stewart in August. An excerpt from PERPETUA and CONVOLVE.3 were performed by the soundeXperiment ensemble, conducted by Philip Tschopp. aurolac was finished, and contemplatio, the final part of the LECTIO DIVINA, nears completion...