I’ve been having a blast playing organ and synth for the 8-piece latin funk band Brownout! Great people, great music, and really great musicians. Also Money Chicha is on this bill.  If you’ve never seen Money Chicha do yourself a favor.  We are totally kicking’ it right now.  Some of the best musicians i’ve played with, seriously top notch.

AUSTIN DAZE PRESENTS

“Stand with Russ!” Benefit with Brownout, Money Chicha, Guy Forsyth Band, Willie Pipkin, Carolyn Wonderland & Special Guests

SAT · AUGUST 25, 2018

Doors: 7:00 pm / Show: 8:00 pm

Bringing the hits to California this weekend for a one off at the plaza in the village of Mammoth Lakes.  4 miles from the Wildfire!!  The whole town is smokey.  Also its at 8,000 ft. elevation so the air is already a little thin.  Sending my best wishes to our horn section for their lungs.

Saturday, August 4, 2018
 Brownout
 Mammoth Lakes, CA

Money Chicha heading out to the East Coast for the weekend.  @Barbés in Brooklyn, The State House in New Haven, @Hawks and Reed in Greenfield, MA.  Here is the description of Money Chicha if you don’t know.

Money Chicha is an Austin, Texas based group featuring members of the Grammy-award winning Latin orchestra Grupo Fantasma and its offshoot funk outfit Brownout which performs a fuzzed-out, reverb-drenched and percussion-heavy style of music inspired by the sounds of Peru and Colombia in the 60s and 70s. This style of music, sometimes called “chicha” music, is known for its infectious Latin beat, its psychedelic, surf guitar pyrotechnics and its melodies influenced by the indigenous culture of the Andes mountains.

The group’s sound is derived from the exhilarating syncopations of congas, cowbell and timbales, the gritty tones of combo organs and vintage synthesizers, effects-laden guitar melodies, insistent basslines and a healthy dose of trippy effects. Money Chicha is a modern translation of this South American musical style interpreted by highly skilled veterans of America’s most vibrant music town. In their capable hands, the “chicha” genre takes on a new and unique character, guaranteed to move one to both dance and listen, entranced by the undeniable rhythms and virtuosic displays of musicality.

“147 Devices for Integrated Principles” unfolds on stage as Hillerbrand+Magsamen unpack a large “preparedness box” of items while the audience unpacks their own smaller box found under their seat, based on the artist’s instructions for how to use the items.

Applying a Fluxus sensibility to art historical tropes of still life painting, photography, and dramatic theater, Hillerbrand+Magsamen playfully engage audiences in the drama of survival.

Hillerbrand+Magsamen perform the explanation of these devices through photography, video, sculpture, and performance, punctuated with Lynn’s experimental and humorous scripted language and Stopshinski’s score. Overlapping screens of varying sizes display a video, continuously panning to the right, that reveals the artists and their children interacting with Rube Goldberg-esque contraptions. The images depict sublime survival, inviting audiences to play with ideas and expectations of “preparedness.”

These people are great!  Kirk Lynn’s script is great!  My music is Great! and made entirely on the casio keyboard I might add!

I’ve been the composer and lone musician on this unique piece of theater called Not Every Mountain.  It’s one of the most inexplicable and beautiful shows i’ve ever seen.  We are thrilled to be workshopping and building at the Guthrie Theater for 25 days in July.  We are all bringing our bikes from Austin to Minneapolis and the theater is a 15 minute bike ride down the hike and bike trail that runs along the Mississippi River.  Beautiful!

CLICK HERE to go to the Guthrie Theater’s beautiful webpage about the show.

This summer the Guthrie is hosting nationally recognized theater collective Rude Mechs in a development residency to present their latest work, Not Every Mountain – a beguiling meditation on change and permanence.  The show is set against a beguiling background of poetry and music.

Written by Kirk Lynn
Music By Peter Stopschinski
Direction by Thomas Graves

22 days on tour on the West Coast with the Latin Funk outfit Brownout and the Peruvian Cumbia band Money Chicha.  Seriously fantastic!

CLICK HERE to se an article on the Pivot Arts Festival in Chicago, Illinois.

The beautiful piece of theater known as Not Every Mountain will be workshopping and presenting at Loyola University as part of the Pivot Arts Festival June 3-10, 2018.  I composed the music for this one and I perform live.  The piece is based on a beautiful poem by the badass Kirk Lynn and incredible direction and conception by Thomas Graves and a great team of creative and lovely people.   For more info click the link above.

Rude Mech’s beautiful piece of theater that is a fantasy on shopping and is entitled Grageriart is workshopping this month.  We were also the recipients of the NEA development grant this year.  Thank you NEA!  We are going to blow your minds.

Cant say too much about this because we are still ironing out the contracts but of course I am more than half way finished with the composition before the contracts are even done.  Not smart but I am just so excited about this.  It is going to be incredible.  Set for premier in Fall 2020 an new opera by Peter Stopschinski commissioned by LOLA Opera.

Fusebox Festival has been around a while now and i’ve participated almost every year in some fashion.  Fusebox does great things for theater in Austin.  Don’t be fooled.  I have two shows in Fusebox this year:

Grageriart, the Theater Shopping Fantasy by Lana Lesley and Peter Stopschinski will have a showing at Fusebox Festival this year.  April 19, 2018 at the Festival Hub.  Shop!

Next Year People by Underbelly April 21, 2018

Written by Bender, Mars, Reisman

Music Direction Peter Stopschinski

Love these people from Underbelly, great performers and writers and just generally fun to be around.

Always love love love working with the beautiful folks at St. Edwards and the lovely Nick Mayo Directing the music Violet Book and Lyrics by Brian Crawley, Music by Jeanine Tesori. Really great music in this show.  I saw this off broadway and was immediately impressed by the score.

Based on The Ugliest Pilgrim by Doris Betts

Directed by Nick Mayo

Music Direction by Peter Stopschinski

CLICK HERE to get the Violet Mary Moody Northen Theater Webpage

These concerts will blow your mind.  I have had the pleasure of co-hosting each year and I am always moved and very impressed by the compositions of these students.  And of course GHP always gets top notch musicians to perform the pieces in a relaxed atmosphere.  this is the text from the Golden Hornet website:

Our 3rd Annual Young Composer Concert presents nine new works from Austin-area youth ranging between ages 9 and 18. Writing the new works under the guidance of professional mentors, each piece will be performed by local ensemble  Tetractys, between brief interviews with the composers. It will include works inspired by the musical legacy of Leonard Bernstein, in collaboration with Bernstein 100 Austin. 

In memory of young composer Draylen Mason, the concert will be dedicated in his honor. It will include vocal dedications from peers and mentors as well as a performance of his work "Hellfire," which he composed for the 2nd annual concert last year. We welcome you to join us in creating a space for reverence amidst the musical community in remembrance of his vibrant demeanor, undeniable talent, and endless potential. 

Nine New Works by:
Ayden Machajewski
Fiona Gehrke
Helen Lundy
Melody Richards
Ian Shaw
Sel Hoxie
Katelyn Rodrigues
Cassidy Peña
Reese Niemitz

Making a new album of music with violinist Jenavieve Varga from New York.  We are writing and recording everything in the studio as we go.  The album has influences from modern classical to industrial noise to indie rock to cool jazz.  Very unique and interesting stuff and I can’t wait for everyone to hear!

Got to work with these fine folks as sound designer for this lovely play by Patrick Shaw.  Words from the Austin Chronicle:

The Repentance of Saint Joan is less a historical account of Joan of Arc than a meditation on the love we lost, the people that disappeared, the chances we didn't take, the things we didn't say, the truths we never told, and the wars we were too afraid to fight. Come alone, and you'll leave thinking of the one you still burn for. Come with someone you love, and you'll leave thinking of each other. Either way, you'll have a little more insight into the inner workings of your own heart, which makes for a theatrical experience that is truly divine.

The Repentance of Saint Joan

The Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, 8604 FM 969
www.paperchairs.com
Through April 7
Running time: 1 hr., 20 min.

This is my favorite of the Fixing Shakespeare series so far.  Its so good and the cast is really great and the direction is to lovingly crafted.  You will have a blast.  Kirk outdid himself on this adaptation. If you go to the webpage HERE you can read more AND it plays a song I co-wrote with John R. Christopher who plays Achilles in the show and he is singing and it is so great. He came up with the melody for the first half of the song and sang it into his phone then i took that and made and accompaniment to go with it and wrote the rest of the song. The recording is so fun!

Written by Kirk Lynn
Direction by Alexandra Bassiakou
Music by Peter Stopschinski

Warning: Lots of “F” bombs.

Fixing Troilus and Cressida is the third installment in our Fixing Shakespeare series.

Taking place in rotation with our Contemporary Classics series, our new series, Fixing Shakespeare will make William Shakespeare's least produced works useful again. Ask yourself how many Shakespeare plays you know or have seen, subtract that number from thirty-seven (depending on who you ask), and those are the plays we are working to fix using our patented performance creation methodology, contemporary English, and adding curse words. (Shakespeare cursed plenty, but most Elizabethan curse words have lost their spice. Zounds!)

In some ways, we're offering you a more authentic experience of what a new Shakespeare play might be like than an actual Shakespeare play. In other ways, not so much.

La Clemenza di Tito: A Retelling

Austin Scottish Rite Theater, 207 W. 18th
March 1, 2, 4 2018

I’m conducting this performance of Mozart’s La Clemenza Di Tito this weekend.  It has been a thrill to learn this music which was unknown to me before I accepted this job.  BUT…when I was a kid we had a VHS of The Marriage of Figaro which I watched all the time, over and over.  I couldn’t get enough and eventually I bought with my own money a copy of the Marriage of Figaro full score (my first score) and followed along with the score and the video as a 10 year-old just tripping on Mozart’s music.  My second score was the Magic Flute.  So I have this sort of deep early influence in Mozart’s opera-writing.  This opera has some amazing music in it and is much lesser known than his other repertoire operas.  The cast is fantastic and the orchestra is fantastic and I succeed conducting only by their grace. Thank you, my friends.

Oh, yeah I arranged the thing too.  I had to reduce the entire opera’s orchestration down to just piano, violin, cello, and clarinet (who doubled on Basset Horn!)  This is my second opera to reduce like this.  I did and arrangement of Verdi’s MacBeth for Gertrude Opera in Melbourne, Australia last year.  Anyway, come see the show!

From the Long Center Website:

Not quite classical and not quite opera, Joseph Keckler’s signature form of song, lyric and quirk are all his own. With a 3+ octave voice that defies all expectations (seriously—take a listen below so you know what we’re talking about), Keckler excels at merging a contemporary, downtown flair with the operatic wilds—stretching the medium to its limit and beyond. Plus plenty of humor and sarcasm. Again, don’t be fooled by just the voice!

I love accompanying Joseph. He is so good and so much fun. This is going to be a fun show with some really great singing. Time Out Outstanding Vocalist mind you!

look at the bios for these people i’m recording with this week:

Amalia Mondragon is a fronteriza vocalist born in East Los Angeles and raised in the farmlands of La Union, New Mexico. She grew up singing and playing the clarinet and trumpet and has been a part of the Juarez Chihuahua MX, El Paso Tx, Las Cruces NM Border music scene for several years. She participated in a large array of genre’s and ensembles to include a stint as lead vocalist of The Chamanas, who were nominated for a Latin Grammy through their collaborated work in the record Once Once. Currently, she is working on her solo project as an independent solo artist.

Adrian Quesada is a grammy award winning musician/composer/producer based in Austin, TX. As a musician he is best known as co-founder of the bands Grupo Fantasma (now ex-member), Brownout/Brown Sabbath, and Spanish Gold. Never one to sit still, he also releases music as The Echocentrics and is a revered and in demand collaborator, occasionally delving into projects such as Electric Peanut Butter Co., his collaboration with Shawn Lee as well as Ocote Soul Sounds, his musical union with Martin Perna of Antibalas. As a guitar player Quesada has toured all over the world, from prestigious festivals to legendary venues, has performed on the Late Show with David Letterman as well as twice on PBS' historic Austin City Limits TV Show. He has also worked with such diverse artists as Prince, GZA (Wu-Tang Clan), Bernie Worrell, Daniel Johnston, Larry Harlow, Quantic and many more. As a producer Quesada has worked on albums by Daniel Johnston, The Sword, Natalia Clavier, Karl Denson, Toy Selectah and Ian Moore, among others, as an engineer he was recently tapped to record The Dap Kings at Level One Sound, and as a guitarist he has appeared on many albums, including recent ones by Bop English (James Petralli of White Denim), Los Angeles Azules and Ximena Sariñana.  He was also recently one of twenty musicians in the world nominated for the prestigious Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative to be protege to the legendary Brian Eno.

In the film world, Quesada produced the soundtrack/score to the award winning (2007 Audience Award winner SXSW Film Fest) documentary Inside the Circle which debuted on MTV in early 2009 has and contributed music to various other films and projects, including 2009 documentary The Least of These and 2015's Jonathan Demme/Louis Black produced Made in Texas short film series. He recently scored a pilot for a History Channel series and has also provided the theme song to National Geographic's American Weed.

His music has been featured on MTV, HBO and Showtime along with major Hollywood films. He has also been a writer for the Ehko/FirstCom/Universal music library for many years, having contributed to many TV shows along the way.  In print his work has been covered in Pitchfork, Texas Monthly, Rolling Stone, Spin Magazine, The Austin Chronicle, NPR and more.

Very excited to music direct this brand new musical, especially because I also wrote the music.  This will be my 4th off-broadway musical/opera!  Billy and the Killers is playing at HERE performing arts center in SoHo in November.  Directed by Craig George with book and lyrics by Jim Shankman, it’s a trailer rock teenage wasteland where they are all out to get you!

Honored to have been asked to be in the utopia fest house band this year which is like a mash up of Money Chicha and the Mike Dillon band. The first band that I ever saw in Austin in 1990 was Billy Goat. Fucking love Billy Goat.  Utopia, TX is gorgeous. Festival! Festival! Festival!

my collaboration with the stellar local opera company, LOLA, deepens as I music direct and play piano in this wonderful pastiche of art song, dance, and opera conceived by Rebecca Herman.  Love!

We Might Be Struck by Lightning
Mexican American Cultural Center, 600 River St.
www.lolaaustin.org
Through Aug. 27

Link to Austin Chronicle article: CLICK

ahhh, the end of my 13th year teaching Music Composition at the Austin Chamber Music Center Summer Camp.  The studets have a ridiculously short amount of time to compose and perform original compositions.  They did great! Big love to all teachers everywhere, such a difficult job.  It helps to have enthusiastic students though:)

Grageriart (Austin, TX)
9:00 pm, Sunday 7/16/17 @ Springdale Station
Lana Lesley (synthesizer, voice) + Peter Stopschinksi (synthesizer, voice)

Grageriart is, in essence, a virtuosic music and voiceover shopping fantasy. Utilizing affirming dings, glitchy underscore, a wide variety of human and other voices, and audio logos, Lana Lesley and Peter Stopschinksi wrap everything you love about commercials and experimental music into a single surreal package.  Lana Lesley is a founding member and the co-producing artistic director of the Austin ensemble-based, internationally acclaimed theater collective Rude Mechs.  Peter Stopschinski has composed music and lyrics for a number of acclaimed plays, musicals, and films; he also provided string arrangements for Grupo Fantasma’s Grammy Award winning album El Existential. His own operas and musicals have been performed across the country at venues including the Arena Stage (DC), Playwrights Horizons (NYC), and Center Theatre Group’s Kirk Douglas Theater (LA).In recent years, Stopschinski has lead adventurous ensembles in the COTFG series, including Catalogue ofSpiders, Wank Tribe, and Massacre of Spring. He is also a longtime member of the experimental rock band Brown Whornet.Click here to listen to 50 albums of music from Stopschinski.Grageriart at Me Mer Mo in May 2017:

Buy An NMASS2017 Sunday Day Pass HERE

Buy An NMASS2017 Full Weekend Pass HERE

Rude Mechs – Not Every Mountain

This has been one of my all time favorite projects.  Basically a long poem written by Kirk Lynn and read by a narrarator while an intricately choreographed construction project evolves in front of you all accompanied by a beautiful and intense electronic score.  My Soundtrack to Not Every Mountain is on Spotify, YouTube, etc,  but also for purchase here:

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/peterstopshinski

That is right!  We recorded this album live over a month’s worth of performances at the Volstead Lounge at the fabulous Me Mer Mo music nights.  It’s incredible.  Really, it is way better than it should be.  It’s definitely noise music but played live by a band and the vibe is a little American impressionist. Love it or leave it!

https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/store.cdbaby.com/cd/wanktribe

a unique musical experience.  Two of Austin’s best musicians, TJ Wade and D Madness, team up to give you a taste of their perspective, they are both blind and will be performing  for an audience immersed in darkness.  Also, the opening bands have to play in darkness too!  Brown Whörnet is so honored to be invited to this special event and we have been practicing very hard (in the dark) we will be joined by Sam Arnold and Greg Yancey and Eric Roach.  The inimitable Toxic Water will blow minds first.  This will be unforgettable.  May 6, 7pm at the Off Center.

This documentary was a joy to score.  I worked closely with Chuck Pinnell to create this fully orchestral soundscape to accompany this excellent historical documentary by Academy Award winner Al Reinert.  Big thanks to John Aldrich who did so much to make this happen.  Premiere in Texas April, 28 2017.    click here to link to Audubon The Film website

“The band that broke music” Wank Tribe will be recording a live album from shows played Monday nights in April and May at the Volstead Lounge as part of the amazing Me Mer Mo Monday nigh experimental music series run by Melissa Seely.  Seriously some of the best most unique music in Austin can be seen at Me Mer Mo.  Wank Tribe’s first album, External Braindrive, is power trio, electric guitar, electric piano, and drums.  The live band will be synth, cello, drums, vocals, electric guitar, electric bass with heavy electronics.  Can’t wait!

I was so curious to play with this very unique singer, and I had a blast!  He is so different from your usual fair and right up my alley.

JOSEPH KECKLER
Joseph Keckler is a vocalist, writer, songwriter and performance artist. His work often combines autobiography, humor, and classical themes. He has been featured on BBC America and WNYC Soundcheck and appeared at Centre Pompidou, Art Basel Miami, SXSW, Third Man Records, BAM, and many other venues. He has received a Creative Capital, NYFA Fellowship, Franklin Furnace grant, and Village Voice Award for “Best Downtown Performance Artist.” He is currently finishing an album of music, and a collection of his writing and performance documents is forthcoming from Turtle Point Press in 2017.

“Shatters the conventional boundaries of classical singing… The sensibility of a magician, a trickster’s dark humor and a formidable musical and literary erudition. Major vocal talent.” — Stephen Holden, The New York Times

“Tantalizing… dynamic… with magnetism and poise is so high that he seems to have been born onstage.” — The Village Voice

Aw man, I just love listening to Dr. Octagon on Brown Whörnet tour back in the day.  So much fun!  Now MoneyChicha opens for this iconic rapper at an iconic venue, Antone’s. Bring it!

Kool Keith
After single-handedly redefining “warped” as the mind and mouth behind the Bronx-based Ultramagnetic MCs, “Kool” Keith Thornton — aka Rhythm X, aka Dr. Octagon, aka Dr. Dooom, aka Mr. Gerbik — headed for the outer reaches of the stratosphere with a variety of solo projects. A one-time psychiatric patient at Bellevue, Keith’s lyrical thematics remained as free-flowing here as they ever were with the NY trio, connecting up complex meters with fierce, layers-deep metaphors and veiled criticisms of those who “water down the sound that comes from the ghetto.” His own debut single, “Earth People” by Dr. Octagon, was quietly released in late 1995 on the San Francisco-based Bulk Recordings, and the track spread like wildfire through the hip-hop underground, as did the subsequent self-titled full-length released the following year. Dr. Octagon’s left-field fusion of sound collage, fierce turntable work, and bizarre, impressionistic rapping found audiences in the most unlikely of places, from hardcore hip-hop heads to jaded rock critics.

Happy to be music directing the classic musical Cabaret with St. Edwards University.  Greta students and professorship there, very supportive.  Also, who doesn’t want to work with Danny Herman and Rocker Versatique?  Lovely!!!

FROM BROADWAY WORLD: Directed by Danny Herman, with choreography by Herman and Rocker Verastique, this excellent staging utilizes the unique Theater in the Round setting of MMNT to transport the audience into the seedy, dreary and desperate world of the Kit Kat Club with aplomb. With the interesting decision to place the orchestra not in one place but scattered throughout the top of the audience seating areas, and to utilize every bit of playing space the theater has to offer, they manage to seamlessly immerse us into this story and keep us there until they choose to release us back to reality

I will be co-hosting this fantastic and important annual event with Graham Reynolds:

Official promo video here (by Jeremy Bruch):


WHO: Golden Hornet Composer Laboratory

WHAT: Second Annual Young Composer Concert

WHERE: The North Door, 501 Brushy St., Austin TX

WHEN: Sunday, March 26th, 2017 at 2pm

PERFORMED BY: Hear No Evil ensemble (The core ensemble will include special guest Charlie Magnone (piano), Rebekah Blackner (violin), James Burch (cello), Shih-Yen Chen (clarinet), Marley Eder (flute), and Cory Fica (percussion)

HOSTED BY: Peter Stopschinski (Austin, TX) and Graham Reynolds

COMPOSITIONS BY Austin-area high school students: Noah Simon, Draylen Mason, Sarah Jackson, Ayden Machajewski, Cole Gleason, Anton von Sehrwald, Maya Arroyo, Tiffany Hoxie, Ian Shaw, Cassidy Pena, Dylan Monahan, Radian Davishines

PRODUCED BY: Graham Reynolds, David Lobel, Noah Simon, Cassie Shankman

HOW MUCH: Free, with a suggested donation of $10

Special thanks to our sponsor Central Market for their support of this event. 

Golden Hornet Project, Inc is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department, as well as private and corporate donations and grant sources. For more information please visit www.goldenhornetproject.org

Stoked to be playing a long composition by my friend and neighbor, Adrian Quesada, guitar hero, producer from many things including Brownout and Grupo Fantasma.  Also in the band are Utah Hamrick and Jeremy Bruch from Golden arm Trio.

Perspectives: Museum Studies Symposium

Money Chicha, so good!  You want it!  3 shows at SXSW.

3/14, 3/17, 3/18.  Check the SXSW schedule.

I was lucky to get to work with the extremely talented VR film maker Quba Michalski on this award winning film.  Thank you Renè Pinnell and Kaleidoscope Film Festival.  This text from Quba:

The world stands still
Yet, my thoughts race forward
--

Winner of Special Prize for Innovation in Storytelling at World VR Forum 2017, Ex\Static combines elements of theatrical stage design, light art, installation, and Quba Michalski’s unique vision for VR spaces, taking the viewer on a surreal journey through thoughts on art, society, culture and technology.

Created in a spirit of free flow of concepts and ideas, the spaces of Ex\Static represent thoughts racing through the busy mind looking for patterns, connections and new meanings. The work itself is an expression of pure joy of moving forward and inherent refusal to remain static.

Running time 3:13
Premiered March 2017
Directed by Quba Michalski
Music Peter Stopschinski
Animation Quba Michalski

For more information: https://qubavr.com/portfolio/ex-static/

Honored to have been asked by Mia Chung to be the composer on her new music in process based in Korea during the Korean War.  It’s going to be a long and enlightening journey and I am very excited to see what happens!

we will be staying and working at New Dramatists in New York City February 8-14 working working working…

I will be playing organ in this!

Event

COTFG: Sulphuric Symphony with Don McGreevy
Don McGreevy’s TEMPORAL NATURE OF STABILITY by the SULPHURIC SYMPHONY

6:30pm Maria Chavez
7:00pm Thomas Echols
8:00pm Sulphuric Symphony: TNOS

Instrumentalists for this performance include: Daniel Mee, Rachel Fuhrer, Nick Lombardo, Steve Parker, Leila Henley, Alan Retamozo, Lauren Gurgiolo, Sonya Gonzales, Adam Hilton, Mohadev, Thomas Echols , Carrie Clark, Henna Chou, Eric Roach, Michelle Born Kahan, Anne Heller, Janie Cowan, Laura Dykes, Brent Fariss, Peter Stopschinski, Derrick Fore, Laura Brackney

The TEMPORAL NATURE of STABILITY is a post-minimalist symphonic piece composed for electric guitars and basses, acoustic upright basses, trombones, bass clarinet, organs, and percussion. Similar to Don’s previous “symphonettes”, TNOS is an experiment. Aside from intended tonalities and melodies, its results remain largely indeterminate. It is intended to impress upon listeners an awareness of our synthetic biologic imprint for succeeding generations.

The Chernobyl disaster, like all byproducts of industrial economies, technological advancements, and unbridled profiteering, does not loom large enough on our minds, but still wavers somewhere in our collective unconscious. This basic uncertainty is suggested by removing the meter from the music and using modified guitars, a familiar tool made unfamiliar using an alternate tuning. TNOS is here to serve as a mnemonic of imprudent solutions, rather than those that arise from a more thorough understanding of potential consequences.

TNOS is slow, brooding, and delicately heavy, reflecting the insidious contamination of the city of Pripyat while its citizens slept unaware and unwarned. The lack of tempo and oddly resounding guitars depict the weary, inexperienced nature of the Chernobyl plant’s engineers. This music is all encompassing and emotive and unconventionally intertwines minimalism and pop melodies.

Don McGreevy is a multi-instrumentalist, performer, and composer who lives in Seattle, Washington. He works extensively in many disciplines, including post-, orchestral-, psychedelic-, avant-, progressive-rock, traditional blues, and modern composition. Born and raised in Buffalo, NY, he studied piano and singing as a youngster. His father, Don, Sr., taught him drums and exposed him to performances as early as 4 years old. He is a founding member and composer for Genius Award nominees, the Master Musicians of Bukkake. Don also works as electric bassist with Doom/Drone pioneers, Earth. He has worked as touring drummer for Kinski and has appeared on recordings playing guitar. Alongside Milky Burgess, Don co-founded the Yada Yada Blues band who perform anachronistic interpretations of 60s and 70s Mississippi blues music. He has worked with Eyvind Kang, Wayne Horvitz, Trey Spruance, Randall Dunn, Danny Barnes, Bobby Previte, Wolves in the Throne Room, Stephen O’Malley, and many more. Don has been composing guitar symphonies with traditional acoustic accompaniment since the late 90s.

Ill be playing with my favorite: Elaine Barber at the 4th Tap Brewery as part of the LOLA concert series.  Never forget, LOLA commissioned an opera from me for next year!  This show is January 29 at 5pm.  We will be performing my harp Concerto written for her (piano and harp version)

Ill be helping a Graham Reynolds host this really great and unique event:

A follow up to the highly successful and sold-out “String Quartet Smackdown” I and II from late 2012 and 2015, this is a bracketed NCAA basketball tournament style competition using original string quartet compositions submitted by composers and musicians worldwide. It’s like March Madness for the ears!

A jury of experts have selected sixteen of these compositions to move on to the “Smackdown” portion, where the audience will be directly involved in the decision process by texting a code to vote for their favorite piece, all performed by The Mother Falcon String Quartet, comprised of three members of the local orchestral band Mother Falcon (Olivia David, Lexi Cardenas, Clara Brill, and Diana Burgess). The winner of each round moves on in the tournament and the champion will receive a grand prize of $1,500, plus other items of recognition. Fun and engaging for the whole family!

Golden Hornet Project, Inc is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department, as well as private and corporate donations and grant sources. For more information please visit www.goldenhornetproject.org

100% loving playing Greg’s Farfisa organ in Austin’s only Chicha band, Money Chicha.  Catch us Monday nights at the Continental Club.

Collaborating with Jenavieve Varga on live music for this unique, one-time-only 1,000 person meditation at the World Trade Center.  Check out the room we are playing in called ‘The Oculus’

The Big Quiet returns with something that’s never been done before…

In collaboration with Kit and Ace and the Port Authority of NY, we’re taking over Santiago Calatrava’s new and stunning Oculus World Trade Center Transportation Hub. Reflecting the Oculus’s unique shape, we’re constructing 1000 seats in concentric circles for a massmeditation and sound experience, followed by a 360-degree string quartet, powerful vocalists, a surprise performance and live DJs.
A simple technique will be shared for first time meditators and a portion of all ticket sales will support the H.E.A.R.T. 9/11 foundation.

This was pretty amazing.  The MTA tried to shut it down but the Oculus people were into it so we did it flash-mob style with a few hundred meditators and armed soldiers in camoflaugeas well as anti-terrorism police wandering around.  They were all very cool.  Everyone loved it.  Good times!

I get to write original music in a 1930’s jazz style for this production of Berthold Brecht’s play which parallels Adolf Hitler’s rise to power from street gangster to supreme government official.  Directed by the fabulous David Long.

www.stedwards.edu/theater

Totally immersed in this commission from Gertrude Opera in Melbourne, Austrailia:  Re-orchestrate and edit the hell out of Verdi’s opera based on Shakespeare’s MacBeth.

WORLD PREMIERE

McBeth could be your neighbour, the odd guy up the road with a McMansion and his own business...Mr & Mrs with an aptitude for glory led by an appetite for destruction...vandalised opulence...menacingly beautiful.
Click for Gertrude Opera Website
Gertrude Opera has commissioned a 're-imaging' of Verdi's score by US composer, Peter Stopschinski - orchestration for electric violin, electric guitar, trombone, double bass, keyboard and percussion - and will bring a 21st century aural sensibility to Verdi's sublime melodies. In our first co-production with Monk Parrots (NYC), a cast of 12 will present a 70minute version, sung in English.  Set in fantasy modern Scotland where every day is All Hallow's Eve, in the Underground Cellar at Mitchelton winery, with Australia's most revered Verdi baritone, MICHAEL LEWIS OAM, in the title role.

Artistic Director: LINDA THOMPSON

Director/Designer: LUKE LEONARD (USA)

Verdi 're-imagined' by Composer PETER STOPSCHINKSI (USA)

Conductor: WARWICK STENGARDS

'THE SCOTTISH OPERA'
VERDI/STOPSCHINSKI
Violent themes - PG*
All tickets $60

Its so much fun taking the red pencil to “the masters”.  I don’t know why I put it in quotes.  Those guys are pretty good and my love for MacBeth and the music Verdi wrote for it has come into full bloom.  There is some amazing music in there plus: the re-orchestration includes electric guitar!  Its totally messed up.  I have about 2 months to complete the score.  Its going quickly and I can’t wait for the premier in Melbourne in September.  Thanks to director Luke Leonard and artistic director and Lady MacBeth Linda Thompson.  Boom.  international baby.

Bought my next door neighbor’s Roland EP-30 especially for this gig with Bois D’Arc by mastermind Eric Roach.  I’m helping record and produce the new album and we have a killer band with Eric, Peter Stopschinski, Cameron Page, Sam Arnold.  We totally Jam.  Here is an album review from Reverb Nation:

Zirque Bois D’Arc – Things I Should’ve Done Better

display for my love of Austin progressive rock groups, including Opposite Day, proud farmer, and the Orchestra stop motion, it shows that they have no stop sign on which the State of Texas will go in the next to see which lie ahead. One of the guitarists who have just had my brilliant ears up is a guitarist named Zirque Bois D’arc. It is an alter ego name for Eric Roach. He has been performing in bands in the Austin area, such as: Lick Lick, Baby Got Bacteria, and the stylings of bluegrass The fencesitters.   Eric itself occurs since the 1980s, with more than 100 live acts as Membership while n ‘there’s no sign of stopping for him everywhere as trucks powerfully and see where it will go next. What I should have done better is his first solo album. He recorded music and his compositions demoed four years ago in Los Angeles. And what you will hear is a dystopian universe set with Zirque hypnotic guitar improvisations.   He brought along people like Sam Arnold (Opposite Day) on Bass Drummers David Hobizal (brother Eddy Hobizal), Pat Kennedy Chuck Fischer (invisible czars), Matt Kelly (Lick Lick) on Organ and pianist Peter Stopschinski. Not to mention a horn section and strings on the album. But let’s go directly to the music. The music itself is a haunting, surreal, avant-garde and experimental journey into the world that was once peaceful, transformed into hell.   And the music of Eric defines the atmosphere of the place where he takes his guitar in these areas. There are 15 compositions on the album that just take me by surprise in the whole structure, nearly as whether he follows in the footsteps of Danny Elfman and Fred Frith (Henry Cow). I can hear some of Rock In Opposition sounds that looks as whether it was recorded in the mid-70s he nailed.   On both tracks, player and Brilliant, is channeled improvisations and Fred Roger Trigaux (Univers Zero, Present) with Zappa touch to it. And it does not show everything, it is really showing its chops and it is freezing, which can be disturbing and sinister. Techniques and galloping percussion crescendo of David and Sam Hobizal bass goes into some amazing fretwork that has both a flavor and Jannick Top Jaco to it, shows the teamwork. gggggg has this wah psychedelic groove underwater funky with a quirky turn and zany while ASDF has a quiet movement with a bluesy section alarmingly brass before seguing in the deafening unexpected signatures a Hendrix-sk style that resembles Axis: Bold as Love -era on Flirt. experimental, electronic, classical and meet in full circle withNews.   The strange synths, string section, and nightmarish just doing guitar licks my hair arms up where Stopchinski arranged for them Eric wants to see where the string head. Peter knows precisely where sounds with room-sk beauty to it and deafening intensity is believed.   This is my fourth time listening to What I should have done better. And Eric Roach has really come into a circle that is now full. And I really had a blast enjoying this album with virtuosity, Crimson-sk, and the unexpected momentum that triggered this year and his new album, Songs approximately Russia I’ll delve into later . But his first album, is a intellect-blowing experience that has made me want to play more of the music of Eric.   Irresistible, Complex, Experimental and Avant-Garde, early Ziroque Bois d’Arc is an adventurous and energetic.

June 30, 2016

LOLA at 4th Tap

By KMFA 89.5, Staff Submission.
LOLA Local Opera Local Artists kicks off its monthly concert series in collaboration with 4th Tap Brewing Cooperative featuring mezzo soprano, Liz Cass and composer, pianist, and musical director, Peter Stopschinski.

June 30th @ 8 pm 4th Tap Brewing Cooperative 10615 Metric Blvd. Austin, TX 78758 Tickets - LOLAaustin.org Austin – LOLA is pleased to announce the beginning of a monthly concert series to take place one Thursday a month at the 4th Tap Brewing Cooperative in North Austin.

Each concert will feature some of Austin’s finest talents with a focus on classical vocal music.

The premier concert will take place on June 30th @ 8 pm and will feature mezzo-soprano and LOLA executive director, Liz Cass and one of Austin’s premier composers, pianists, and musical directors, Peter Stopshchinski.

The program will include music of Verdi, Schumann, Fauré, and Stopschinski himself.

LOLA has also commissioned a new opera from Peter Stopschinski and Kirk Lynn set to premier in Fall 2017!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So very pleased to get a second chance to perform Massacre of Spring (my percussion trio and piano arrangement and reconstruction of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring) at NMASS festival this year.  Thank you to Henna Chou and Melissa Seely.  The band is incredible featuring Thomas Burritt – marimba, Chuck Fischer – drum kit, Cullen Faulk – vibes, glock, bass drum and Peter Stopschinski – piano.  I have very few of my Vacation With Stravinsky graphic novels left which will be for sale at the show.  I was reminded when I began revisiting this piece that I only arranged the first part of the Rite.  Someday I need to do that second part.  It starts with the Tatooine music from starwars.

 8:00pm Thursday 6/23/2016

The Beachcomber Boys: A Reading by Playwright Myra Slotnick and Composer Peter Stopschinski

 

WHENFriday, April 22, 7pm

PHONE508-487-1750

EMAILinfo@paam.org

PRICEFree and open to the public

“The Beachcomber Boys” is a fictional tale of the historic true-life fraternity of painters and poets and novelists and playwrights who, since 1916, have gathered each and every Saturday night for an evening of rollicking good fun and certain debauchery, in a not-so-disclosed decrepit location, on a spit of sand jutting out to the sea, known as Provincetown, Massachusetts.

The story, set in 1953, amidst the Hollywood Blacklist, touches upon the intersection of art, literature, fame and family, and the disappointment of failure, in work and love. Driven by this, seeming, male dominance, it is also propelled by the powerful force of the women who orbit and confound their lives; words are tossed and hearts are wrecked and the foghorn blows and the wind whips and the bells chime!

And art is made.

“The Beachcomber Boys” is an age-old fishing village “love storm” and, as such, has an emotional rip-tide, where some swim safe to shore…and others are pulled out to sea.

So stoked to be asked to compose music for this, the graduating play of graduate playwright Joanna Garner and Directed by the fantastic Alexandra Bassiakou Shaw.  I had the pleasure of working with Joanna on her play 100 Heartbreaks which was a honky tonk musical.  This is so different.  Set mostly in Iran in the 1970’s this play explores social differences, love, and geographical displacement.  I had a blast making the music and used the lovely voice of Erin Ivey on much of the soundtrack.  The play runs April 15-April 23, 2016 in the Oscar G. Brockett theater.  Check it out!

UPDATE:  Our production got nominated for several Austin Critic’s Table awards (including Best Musical Director) and ended up in a tie for first place in Best Musical Production.  Sweet!  

Running through April 17, 2016

Tis the season of musicals for me right now.  Among all the others I am also music directing and playing piano in the 1960’s Broadway underdog hit, She Loves Me book by Joe Masteroff, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, music by Jerry Bock (Fiddler on the Roof)  There is a lot of great things about this musical including a crazy-ass plot twist at the end of act one and some really well scored music.  I had to create a 6 piece orchestra reduction from the original 12 piece version which was a ton of work but well worth it.  The students are really excellent and we have 3 equity actors acting alongside the students in this production.  Our fearless director is Nick Mayo and he has a super clear and passionate vision of this production.  He has big Broadway cred and also starred in She Loves Me in high school at the age of 16 so has lots of great insight into the piece.

photo by: Bret Brookshire

Click HERE to read an Austin American Statesman interview with Director Nick Mayo about the show