COMPOSER SABRINA PENA YOUNG | MUSIC TECHNOLOGY | FILM | CLASSICAL | OPERA

Jennifer Higdon is one of the most performed living American composers. Her list of commissioners and performing organizations is extensive and includes the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Tokyo String Quartet, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the President’s Own Marine Band, among others. Higdon received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto, with the committee citing her work as a “deeply engaging piece that combines flowing lyricism with dazzling virtuosity.” Her lecture is co-sponsored by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.

We creative types, maybe we are a little different from the rest. Maybe we have to be ...to sit for hours, writing tiny little notes on a page that will someday compel a performer to make beautiful music ...to mix the paints to create the perfect sky or type simply  the most perfect line of poetry.  Maybe we creative, artsy type folks need to be different. Maybe it's our emotions and wearing our heart on our ink-stained sleeves, or the inability to feel angry or sad or joyful without producing a tangible object that reflects our souls. Maybe some days we wonder what it is like to be like another, maybe someone not so wildly lost in mental gymnastics and emotional turmoil until a brushstroke or a symphony or the written word or the moving image wipes away  the grief and the anguish and the irreparable sadness. How do humans deal with life's cruelty  without such solace as a song?  Tragedy births great art. Pain envelopes creativity...

Libertaria: The Virtual Opera My incredible music fans at Reverbnation, Twitter, and Facebook, have kept my music at #1 in Electronica in Buffalo, New York! Reverbnation is a great place for music fans to keep track of the latest on Libertaria - my current electronic opera project premiering in October. Find out the latest about upcoming concerts and screenings, download free music, and ask me questions about Libertaria, and more at Reverbnation!  BECOME A MUSIC FAN AT REVERBNATION I have been adding a few sneak peaks of Libertaria online, including the recent addition of Symphony of Shadows from Libertaria, this months' FREE GIVEAWAY! Symphony of Shadows combines electronica with a haunting piano melody in a dramatic film soundtrack. Haunting and sentimental, at once sad and hopeful, Symphony of Shadows is a fitting beginning to Libertaria: The Virtual Opera. I hope that you enjoy this month's FREE GIVEAWAY! It's my way of saying THANK YOU for supporting Liber...