"There are no two points so distant from one another that they cannot be connected by a single straight line -- and an infinite number of curves."
Composer Lawrence Dillon has produced an extensive body of work, from brief solo pieces to a full-length opera. Three disks of his music are due out in 2010 on the Bridge, Albany and Naxos labels. In the past year, he has had commissions from the Emerson String Quartet, the Cassatt String Quartet, the Mansfield Symphony, the Boise Philharmonic, the Salt Lake City Symphony, the Ravinia Festival, the Daedalus String Quartet, the Kenan Institute for the Arts, the University of Utah and the Idyllwild Symphony Orchestra.
Although he lost 50% of his hearing in a childhood illness, Dillon began composing as soon as he started piano lessons at the age of seven. In 1985, he became the youngest composer to earn a doctorate at The Juilliard School, and was shortly thereafter appointed to the Juilliard faculty. Dillon is now Composer in Residence at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where he has served as Music Director of the Contemporary Ensemble, Assistant Dean of Performance, and Interim Dean of the School of Music. He was the Featured American Composer in the February 2006 issue of Chamber Music magazine.
Just got the 2007 royalty statement from Albany Records for this 2002 disk of my chamber music. To my surprise, they are showing I had 1.5 times as many CD sales as digital downloads last year. I would have guessed we were past that tipping point by now – by which I mean I would have thought digital downloads would be outstripping CD sales. No conclusion to draw, just a presentation of information.
By the way, since I know the world is waiting with baited* breath for my next release, I am currently working on two new recordings: another disk of chamber music and a disk of vocal pieces. Takes me a long time to get these out: I am hopelessly hypercritical when it comes to recordings of my music.
So I guess the wormy scent on those tongues will linger a while longer.
(all right, I know, it's supposed to be spelled “bated,” and mean something else entirely. But this way always seems much more fun)