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

So grateful to writer and friend Mia Chung for inviting me to work on her new musical/play with music.  She is a very skilled writer with an intense vision and unique voice.  I am learning so much about music, Korean Music, and collaboration.  Mia brought on traditional Korean music expert Gamin Kang who has been so generous with her deep knowledge and experience.  Thank you so much to New Dramatist who have always been so nice to and supportive.  Looking forward to moving this forward! Forward!!

LOEWE AWARD

The Frederick Loewe Award is an annual award (selected by an outside committee) in music-theatre given to a New Dramatists playwright and his/her composer partner for the development of a new music-theatre work.

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

Running through May 15, 2016

They lead the kids all over the lovely grounds of Zach Scott (down near Town Lake) and the kids watch little performances and sing songs and dance.  There is sweet video design by Stephanie Busing and awesome actors including children and adults.  See Humpty Dumpty sitting on a wall and a great huge Caterpillar and Tweedle Dee and… you get the picture.  Its totally cool and I wrote the music including a surf-punk tantrum song that Alice sings in the beginning that makes me so happy every single time.

I super loved collaborating with Katie Bender and Gabrielle Reisman from Underbelly and Nat Miller from Zach Scott’s Children’s Theater department. My first time at Zach Scott and this thing is really crazy and fun and aparently the kids are going crazy for it.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE WEBSITE FOR THE SHOW

Erin Ivey has the most lovely voice both physically (expressed with her clear bell like sound) and her spiritual voice (expressed through her lyrics and vocal expression).  I have heard her name around town but never had the pleasure of hearing her.  Now, through Chuck Pinnell (film score composer and guitarist extraordinaire), I am proud to say i’m currently playing piano for her and we just had an really fantastic gig at the one of Austin’s loveliest venues.  It also happened to be our first gig as a band!

CLICK HERE FOR ERIN IVEY’S WEBSITE

Our band is amazing and we have a very cinematic sound.  Every musician is killer and a pleasure to play with.  Steve Schwelling – Drums, Chris Afflerbough – Upright Bass, Chuck Pinnell – Guitars, Peter Stopschinski – Piano, and of course Erin Ivey – Guitar/Mandolin

Music writer Jim Caluguri posted on social media right after the gig: They were subtlely fabulous and the 1st great local show of the year!  Album coming soon…

Aw man, I’m producing CHRISTEENE now.  Fuck.  So fucking awesome!!!!!!!!  New album on the way.  This project is so much fun>>  Musically its a huge lesson in what goes on below 200 hertz.  So much bass theory.  Simply fascinating.  Socially and lyrically its about the party that ends the world.

Oh man, can I tell you how excited I am to get a new opera commission?  Holy cow!!!  LOLA Austin, a local opera company, has commissioned Kirk Lynn and I to compose a new opera for their 2017 season and I couldn’t be more excited.

Click HERE for the LOLA Austin website

Kirk and I are looking at the short fiction of O. Henry as a starting point.  Things are just getting started and the possibilities are infinite!!!

Ritual of the Abduction from the Album and Artbook Vacation With Stravinsky or The Massacre of Spring.  Tom Burritt – Marimba.  Chuck Fischer – Drums, Vibes, Glock.  Peter Stopschinski – Piano.  Peter Stopschinski and Eric Roach – Recording.

Ok, let me just say The Calico Buffalo with music and lyrics by Peter Stopschinski and book and lyrics by E.J. Stapleton is the little musical that COULD!!  Not only were we held over in our Off-Broadway production at the Pearl Theater but we were voted #1 Best In Fest of the New York Musicals Festival.  It is impossible but out little sincere, big-hearted, family show with a message of love was the audiences favorite.  The band was amazing led by the masterful Jesse Warkentin and the cast just brought the energy and the drama each night.  Congrats to us and our entire cast, crew, and creative team!!!!

New York Musicals Festival Website

WHAT FOLLOWS IS THE OLDER PART OF THE POST:

SPECIAL NOTICE*****Calico Buffalo is being held over for an extra performance due to popular demand.  Saturday July 18, 2015 at Noon at the Pearl Theater 410 W. 42nd Street Between 10th and 11th Avenue.  One more chance to see the fantastic show!******

The new musical by E. J. Stapleton and Peter Stopschinski is finally getting it due!

5 Performances 42nd and Ninth Avenue in The Pearl Theater at Studio Row!

• Wednesday, July 8, 2015 at 8:00 pm
• Friday, July 10, 2015 at 9:00 pm
• Saturday, July 11, 2015 at 1:00 pm
• Sunday, July 12, 2015 at 4:00 pm
• Thursday, July 16, 2015 at 5:00 pm

It’s all part of the 2015 New York New Musical Theater Festival:

Click here for the official show page

Here is the promo video made by NYMF:

Newest video from my Vacation With Stravinsky or The Massacre Of Spring album and picture book.  Movement 4: Spring Rounds.  Classic:)  Tom Burritt – Marimba.  Chuck Fischer – Drums and Vibes.  Phillip White – Drums.  Peter Stopschinski – Piano.  Eric Roach and Peter Stopschinski – Recording.

More from my picture book and album Massacre of Spring or Vacation With Stravinsky.  The incredibly insistent Augurs of Spring.  Tom Burritt – Marimba.  Chuck Fischer – Drums, Vibes, Glock.  Peter Stopschinski – Piano.  Peter Stopschinski and Eric Roach – Recording.

The Wank Tribe “Nose Cam”

Saturday November 15 @ 7:30PM

North Door 502 Brushy in Downtown Austin

Golden Hornet Project presents the official CD and Book release of my adaptation of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and my book of drawings and anecdotes from Stravinsky’s and my imaginary vacation.

Massacre of Spring Commercial

GHP-StopschinskiPoster12x18

Elaine Barber, Peter Bay and I selfie during applause.

My new harp concerto “Rough Night w/Happy Ending” was premiered at the American Harp Society Conference last night.  Peter Bay conducted members of the Louisiana Philharmonic and fabulous soloist Elaine Barber in a killer performance to close out the festival.  Good time and good musicians!

Conductor Brent Baldwin accepts awards like a pro!

Every year the arts critics in Austin come together and give awards for outstanding arts events and performances.  This is called the Austin Critic’s Table Awards.  This year I was a part of several arts events that received awards:

I am lucky to be a company member and composer for the internationally acclaimed theater company Rude Mechs who were inducted into the Austin Arts Hall Of Fame this year.

I love my friend, playwright Kirk Lynn, who wrote an amazing adaptation of Shakespeare’s King John which was directed by Madge Darlington.  It was an all-star cast and crew and that play received two awards:
Best Actor:
Jason Liebrecht, The Lieutenant of Inishmore/Fixing King John
Best Ensemble Performance:
Fixing King John, Rude Mechanicals

I played piano in a touring show by Daniel Alexander Jones and Bobby Halverson which won

Best Touring Show:

Jomama Jones: Radiate!, Salvage Vanguard Theater

My 501c3 with Graham Reynolds, Golden Hornet Project, had our biggest show ever for the opening festivities of Fusebox this year.  We commissioned 8 composers to complete Mozart’s Requiem mass and collaborated with Texas Choral Consort , Convergence Ensemble, KMFA Classical Radio Austin, and Texas Performing Arts to present Mozart’s Requiem Undead which won much acclaim:
Best Choral Performance
Mozart Requiem Undead, Texas Choral Consort/Convergence/Golden Hornet Project
Best Singer
Cameron Beauchamp, Mozart Requiem Undead

BROWN WHöRNET is playing in Houston, New Orleans and Austin May 23-30th 2014.  We’re playing two shows with the fantastic and unique double-guitar-blade-weilding-poetic-avant-swamp rockers CHURCHWOOD and once with Flying Balalaika Brothers and OMGWTFBBQ.  We don’t play all that often but when we do we freakin’ tear shit up!  Here is a nice little featurette:

BROWN WHöRNET

Bizarre, frenetic, sometimes offensive, and always amazing, experimental rock collective Brown Whörnet has survived as long as it has on sheer grit and immense talent. The Austin eightpiece rocks out hardcore as effectively as they dismantle jazz, funk, klezmer, or anything else they get their eight sets of grubby hands on. The thinking man’s freakout session, their music leans as hard on Sun Ra as it does on Beefheart, as much Zappa as Minutemen. Chaos has ruled since their first show in 1993, and though the lineup has undergone changes over the course of the band’s decade-plus history, the sense of anything-goes and God-what’s-next has never left them. Currently composed of players with the monikers of Stin-G, RUNPMS, XSP, JimE, and Gaseous C, membership has evolved and revolved, including the likes of Juicy, AUNT J, MC Squeak, Chef Poonstick, Wolff, J, Oscar, and McKinney. Somewhere in there is Peter Stopschinski, composer, keyboardist, and a driving force behind this band and frequent collaborator with Golden Arm Trio’s Graham Reynolds. – Christopher Hess

I was super excited to get the call from my neighbor Adrian Quesada to write some string arrangements for use in ESPN’s coverage of the World Cup in Brazil!

 Last year I was fortunate enough to score a play by my friend, playwright Madeline George: The Curious Case of the Watson intelligence.  It went up off-broadway at Playwrights Horizons in fall of 2013. This year it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in drama. Congratulations Madeleine!!!

Over 200 performers will come together Wednesday April 16, 2014 to present this new vision of Mozart’s Requiem Mass.  This classic was left unfinished at Mozart’s death and now Golden Hornet Project has commission 10 unique composers to each complete a movement.  Conducted by Brent Baldwin and performed by Texas Choral Consort, members of Convergence Vocal Ensemble, full orchestra, 4 percussionists, rock band, and electronics.

Composers:  Graham Reynolds, Todd Reynolds, Glenn Kotche, Kate Moore, Justin Sherburn, DJ Spooky, Adrian Quesada, Caroline Shaw, Petra Hayden, and Peter Stopschinski.

AND ITS FREE OF CHARGE!!!!

come see what we’ve been working on for almost 4 years now.  MOZART’s REQUIEM UNDEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow (Wednesday) @ 6:30pm GOLDEN HORNET PROJECT will present our most ambitious project ever and its FREE!!!!  Please come and check out this very cool concert. Mozart’s Requiem Mass re-composed by 10 composers:  Graham Reynolds, Todd Reynolds, Glenn Kotche, Kate Moore, Justin Sherburn, DJ Spooky, Adrian Quesada, Caroline Shaw, Petra Hayden, and Peter Stopschinski.  Conducted by Brent Baldwin and performed by Texas Choral Consort, members of Convergence Vocal Ensemble, orchestra, 4 percussionists, rock band, and electronics (nearly 200 performers!).   Thank you to our co-presenters, Texas Choral Consort, Texas Performing Arts, Fusebox Festival and another heartfelt thank you to our generous friends and supporters.  We’ve been working on this show for almost 4 years and it’s finally here!!!!

GOLDEN HORNET PROJECT PRESENTS:
MOZART’s REQUIEM UNDEAD
Wednesday April 16, 2014
French Legation Museum – 802 San Marcos Street Austin, TX 78702
For the comfort and ease of your arrival and experience, we want to share the following guidelines and information.
Gates Open: 5.30pm
Show starts at 6:30pm
FREE ADMISSION
NO RESERVATION REQUIRED

For safety and legal reasons, the following items are not permitted onto the grounds:
Chairs (including folding)
Animals (with the exception of service animals)
Alcohol
Coolers / Ice Chests
You are welcome to bring:
Water (in canteens)
A small blanket, mat or cushion to sit on
Food contained in over the shoulder bags/backpack

PARKING

Street Parking is available surrounding the French Legation Museum on 7th, 6th and 5th Streets. Most street parking is available before 11pm without a permit. Please check street signs.

Paid Lots are available under the I-35 overpass at 7th Street. The lots are free before 7pm and $7 after. You may want to prepay if you are parking before 7pm, so you don’t have to leave the grounds during the concert.

Bicycle racks will be available outside the walls of the grounds on San Marcos Street.

Drop Off Zone – If you catch a cab or have someone drop you off at the grounds, they will be able to do so immediately opposite the Main Gate at 802 San Marcos Street.

ACCESSIBILITY
Please use the parking lot located at the intersection of East 9th Street and Embassy Drive for wheelchair access to the brick paths. The grounds are wheelchair accessible and all walkways are hard surfaced. There will be accessible seating at the event. If you need assistance, volunteers are available to direct you.

FOOD & BEVERAGES
There will be food vendors on site including Kerlin BBQ and Crepe Crazy (savory, sweet and vegetarian crepe options).  There will also be a full cash bar and an ATM.

Bring it!!!

Got to fill in on keyboard with this awesome Chicha band.   It’s like Cumbia mixed with surf and psychedelics and punk rock.  A great flavor after 6 weeks of opera in New York.  Everyone in it is an amazing musician and a joy to play with.  Money Chicha!!!