Sunday, October 30, 2005
The ever growing Sequenza21 family.
On Friday October 28 at 5:06 p.m. my wife, Cheryl, gave birth to our first child, an extremely handsome little boy named Asa Gray Minchew. He has a full head of brown hair and pretty blue eyes. He was born on my father's birthday which made for an extremely happy day.
Asa was born 3 weeks early because of difficulties my wife had been having over the last few weeks. I look rather rough in the picture above after the many sleepless nights leading up to Asa's birth (with many years of sleepless nights to go.)
But all is well now.
Both are doing beautifully and are home at last.
And now for the important numbers:
6 lbs 14 oz
21 1/2 inches long
Any words of wisdom for a brand new dad?
posted by Everette Minchew
10:04 PM
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Composer Everette Minchew (born 1977) is consistently active in the creation, performance, and promotion of contemporary music. Moderately prolific, his catalogue includes small chamber pieces for violin, piano, various wind instruments, harpsichord and electronic music. Current commissions include a string trio and an opera based on an 11th-century crusades tale.
His earliest musical training came at the age of eleven when he began playing alto saxophone; it wasn’t long until he began his first attempts in composition.
He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Music History from the University of Southern Mississippi, where he studied saxophone under world-renowned soloist, Lawrence Gwozdz.
Fearing that traditional university training would hinder his development as a progressive composer, he abandoned the idea of formal lessons in favor of an intense private study of modern masterworks.
Minchew's works are characterized by their intense timbral explorations and brutal dissonance. That is not to say, however, that the compositions are devoid of beauty. In the first of the Two Brief Pieces, for example, the harpsichord chimes stringent yet haunting chords evoking a sense of loss.
Other pieces, like the Figment No. 2 "Juggler's Fancy" play upon the kaleidoscopic interaction between timbres and tones. The rapid alternation of pizzicato, arco bowing, and extreme glissandi remind the listener of Xenakis coupled with a Berio Sequenza. Minchew's Invention "Two-Part Contraption" for piano owes much to Ligeti's etudes and boogie-woogie jazz.
His music has been performed around the United States, and he was the featured composer at the 2005 Intégrales New Music Festival in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
He currently resides in Hattiesburg, Mississippi with his wife, Cheryl.
CONTACT INFORMATION
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