I turn 40 years old this year. For a composer of concert music, this is not necessarily a major milestone. Given how long our course of study typically is, by the time we’re 40 most of us have been professional composers for little more than a decade. If it seems a little strange to throw myself a portrait concert on this occasion, keep this in mind: my father died four months shy of his 40th birthday. This weighs highly on a son’s mind. When I turned 30, my brother, Juan Bayolo, and I talked about this and how much it hung on us to approach this, what turned out to be the last decade of our father’s life. I decided then to make a big deal of turning 40 and, here we are, ten years later and it’s time to make a big deal out of turning 40.
The program features performances by Jeffrey Weisner, D.J. Sparr, Eric M. Plewinski, Glen Sewell, Pictures on Silence, and Great Noise Ensemble performing the DC premieres of Mix Tape (for solo bass), Calm Down, Ringo! (for four drum sets), the U.S. premiere of Caprichos, in a new arrangement, and the world premiere of Little Black Book, my Fromm Foundation commission for D.J. Sparr, as well as a new performance of Crudely Spun Tales for saxophone and harp.
So I hope you will join us for this event, which will go to benefit the new music series at the Atlas Performing Arts Center and Great Noise Ensemble (proceeds will be split 50-50 between the two organizations). Not only will you be helping me celebrate, you’ll be helping the Washington new music scene to grow and mature and helping us to bring you the cutting edge sounds for which Atlas and GNE are known.
I turn 40 years old this year. For a composer of concert music, this is not necessarily a major milestone. Given how long our course of study typically is, by the time we’re 40 most of us have been professional composers for little more than a decade. If it seems a little strange to throw myself a portrait concert on this occasion, keep this in mind: my father died four months shy of his 40th birthday. This weighs highly on a son’s mind. When I turned 30, my brother, Juan Bayolo, and I talked about this and how much it hung on us to approach this, what turned out to be the last decade of our father’s life. I decided then to make a big deal of turning 40 and, here we are, ten years later and it’s time to make a big deal out of turning 40.
The program features performances by Jeffrey Weisner , D.J. Sparr , Eric M. Plewinski , Glen Sewell , David Wolf, Chris DeChiara, Pictures on Silence , and Great Noise Ensemble performing the DC premieres of Mix Tape (for solo bass), Calm Down, Ringo! (for four drum sets), the U.S. premiere of Caprichos, in a new arrangement, and the world premiere of Little Black Book, my Fromm Foundation commission for D.J. Sparr, as well as a new performance of Crudely Spun Tales for saxophone and harp.

Image Credit: http://nightbaking.blogspot.com/
So I hope you will join us for this event, which will go to benefit the new music series at the Atlas Performing Arts Center and Great Noise Ensemble (proceeds will be split 50-50 between the two organizations). Not only will you be helping me celebrate, you’ll be helping the Washington new music scene to grow and mature and helping us to bring you the cutting edge sounds for which Atlas and GNE are known. Stay tuned to this space, as well as the Atlas web site and the event Facebook page for more details, ticket information, etc.