Long Time, No Post

Well hey there!
It's been a while.  I know.  I've started playing and teaching at Second City so that fun.  I just booked a Second City boat for next year, which means I'll be music directing on a cruise ship for four months next summer.  "HINT" the murder mystery musical I wrote just closed at pH Productions.  We had the privilege of playing to sold out houses for most of the run.   Here are new projects that I'm working on that are awesome:

The Improvised Sondheim Project - This incredibly talented group combines two of my favorite things:  Sondheim and musical improv.  Check out the website for more info on this group: Sondheim

MINt - Put four teams together with an always changing second act and you get Music Improv NighT.   I'm coaching/music directing for a team with Tiffani Swalley.  

Handsome Naked - One of my secret dreams is to produce for a comedy rap album.  Well, enter Handsome Naked, a comedy rap group.  It's officially dropping in a couple days.  But here it is.

I have other projects in the works, but will keep posting...every now and then!
Brad

Ivy and other new videos.

Yes it's been a while.

2011 was extremely busy for me: a new website (www.BradKempMusic.com), numerous world premier performances, transcription gigs, music directing, writing new musicals and much more. BKM3 is my new website. It has a cleaner look and I am really happy with the way it turned out.

I had several choral world premier performances, including concerts featuring Octarium

, Green Bay Southwest Chorale

, First Church Chancel Choir

, and Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Choir. I also had performances by Axiom Brass Quintet

and Dal Niente.

I had a mini musical performed at Columbia (A Wicked Woman).

Speaking of musicals, I currently have 4 in the works. The first is Soulmate?, which has been in the works for a while, but I now have a table reading scheduled and a possible production scheduled for the summer. HINT is on the table for a production by pH in the fall. pH productions is currently working up 2 new musical, both of which I will be writing music for. First is a musical adaptation of a movie, The Room. The last project I am working on is OrpHan: The Musical, which is a friend’s project, that I am joining her on, to write music.

In March of this year I was named the Head Musical director of pH Productions. pH is a comedy theatre company, based in Chicago. They specialize in Improv, Sketch, and Musical theatre. As their head musical director I play piano for an hour long, fully improvised musical every week. I also just finished music directing and playing piano for the Christmas show, The Santa S tories.

We are currently working on launching two new full- length musicals (The Room and OrpH an: The Musical). I am composing original music for both projects.

It is a really exciting time for pH Productions right now because we are celebrating out 10 year anniversary in 2012. We are also moving into our own theatre in the next month, thanks to a $20,000 grant from chase bank.

Please visit www.WhatIspH.com to see more info on the company.

Finally to get to the title of the post, I recently finished a new recording project. I recorded a short melody that I wrote 10 times. Then I auto-tuned it to create harmonies. Enjoy!

Brad

Choral Music

Choral music has been my life for the past couple of months. I have had four world premier performances in various locations. One performance was in Kansas City with the outstanding vocal group, Octarium. I have mentioned that in the past and hope to have a recording soon. Another performance was in my hometown of Green Bay, WI. The performance was by Green Bay Southwest High School's Chorale. They sang "Gray Steel Morning" an original composition with lyrics by my good friend Dan Lowry. The third group that premiered my compositions was the choir I sing with every week, The First United Methodist Church Chancel Choir. In the past two months they have performed two new pieces of mine. The first was a setting of "Agnus Dei" that I composed specifically for the choir. The second was a setting of "Psalm 130", which I also composed specifically for this choir. "Psalm 130" was performed on 4/10/2011 and I recently posed a recording of that performance for everyone to listen too and enjoy.

Here is the video:

Please let me know what you think by commenting and listening to the recording.

That is all for now.

-Brad

Soulmate?

I know I keep talking about this show, but it has been consuming almost all of my time outside of school. The script and score are done and now I'm going through making edits. I wrote a new song for it yesterday. I hope to have a demo of it up soon. Speaking of demos, the soulmate demo recording session is finally mixed. I have had a couple samples of songs from it up on my website for a while, but they are completely finished now. I wanted to post a recording of Alex singing "David's Message" since that was a song I posted a while ago with me singing. This way you can hear the before and after of the project.

Enjoy!

In other news I'm writing a mini-musical for my detective fiction class. I'm really excited about the concept because I've wanted to write more orchestral music (ie. Jekyll and Hyde, Frankenstein) for a long time.

When I get recordings of things I'll post them.

That's all for now,

check out the website for the new soulmate recordings soon!

-Brad

Octarium Competition

Hey there!

The newest news from me is that the mixes from the "Soulmate?" demo are almost done and I won a composition competition. You can hear a sample of some of the demos on my website ( www.bradkempmusic.com ). There is one on the main page and both of the samples are under the music tab, musical theatre section.

The other big news is that I won a composition competition. I was recently chosen as the Winner of the 2010 Octarium Composition Competition. The competition this year called for arrangements of pre-existing pieces. I did an arrangement of Claude Debussy's "La fille aux cheveux de lin". This piece is one of my favorite of all of Debussy's preludes for piano. Here is a video of the original piece:

The arrangement I did was for Octarium, an eight member choir. My piece is for soprano soloist and choir. Sometime in the next year there will be a performance of the piece in Kansas City by Octarium.

This is not the first competition I have ever won. In the spring of this year I won the 2010 Turner Award in Composition. My piece "numbers between brackets" for flute and cello won the competition. There is a sample of the recording on my website which can be seen here along with other samples of classical pieces I have written. Here is the video I posted of the entire piece:

That is all for now. Check back soon for more of the "Soulmate?" demos and thanks for reading!

Brad

"Love (Luv): an afterthought"

"Love (Luv): an afterthought" is the musical that my friend Dan and I are working on. We started it in high school and in the past week we have started working on it again. So far we have a draft of the first act done and the second act script is being written. I have all the music for the first act done; songs, scene change music, and underscoring. I'm sure it will undergo a huge editing/rewriting process in the future, but for now it is done. Many of the songs are the same from when we first started writing it in high school. However, several have changed. Because we set the show aside for a year or two and recently looked at it again with fresh eyes, there are many things that we have decided to change. Many of those things are music. In addition to editing the old music, I also wrote a couple new songs. One of which is the first song in the show. This song isn't an "opening number" it is simply a song that comes before the opening number. It sets up the two main characters and gives a nice, low-key opening to the show. Today I recorded a demo of the song, and wanted to share it with those of you who actually read my blog. The song is called "All That Matters" and has the two main characters singing about how they are in love, and even though there are things that are wrong with their relationships, the fact that they are in love is 'all that matters'. At this point in the show, we don't realize that they are not singing about each other; they actually haven't even met. They are both in relationships that they think are great, but their friends can see that they aren't that happy.

So that's a little background on the song and here it is. Again, it is a midi generation of the instruments and I am singing both parts. The second verse is the female lead singing, but I sang it in my range so it was more comfortable. However, the ending I sang the female parts up the octave, so they sound correctly.

Enjoy:

I really happy with the way it turned out. That's all for now.

Soulmate? recording session coming up in about a month!

-Brad

"Soulmate?"

Soulmate? is finished! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, Soulmate? is the musical I have been writing. I started it february of 2009. I have been working on it, on and off, for the past year and a half. As I stated in the last entry, the first video log was a song from this show. The music that I've written for this show has honestly been some of the most fun I've ever had composing. The music is heavily influenced by shows like Next to Normal, Spring Awakening, and RENT. It originally started as a rock opera/concept album but quickly turned into a musical. However, most of the show is still a sing through. The recording session that I'm doing in August has 7 songs from the show. One of the songs we're doing is "David's Message". The song is when the soulmate of the show declares his love for the main female character. On stage, he is sitting at a table writing the letter and she is standing on the other side of the stage reading the letter. He sings as he writes but they don't interact. It should be a cool scene on stage.

Here is a demo I did of the song. It is a midi generation of the instruments and I am singing. Enjoy:

In the fall I will have a great recording of this song from the recording session, with my good friend Alex singing.

I will keep you updated.

That's all for now,

Brad

Composition, LinkedIn, Recording Sessions and More...

As the title states, I have been very busy recently and now is the time to share. First off I recently had my final performance for my composition II class. We all composed pieces for Piano and Cello/Violin. I chose to write for piano and cello. My piece was entitled L'ouragan which means The Hurricane in French. The piece is in three movements to represent the three main stages of a hurricane. The opening movement starts out slow and is in a minor key. This is greatly contrasted by the second movement which is mainly solo cello. It is very calm sounding to symbolize the eye of the storm. Finally there is the third movement which arrived very suddenly and is meant to catch the listeners off guard. The music is fast, minor, and makes the piece go out with a bang!

Please check it out!

The second part of this entry's title is LinkedIn. I recently joined LinkedIn and am looking to make connections. Below is my public Profile on LinkedIn. Please add me as a connection if you already have a profile or create on. They are great to have. Brad Kemp

Other Composition that I have had recent performances are two choral piece I composed for a church choir in Mequon, WI. About a month ago I was contacted by the music director from Christ Church of Mequon, Wisconsin. He found my website while he was searching for the high school I went to. He told me about how he listened to One of God’s Angels, the choral piece I wrote in high school. He enjoyed it so much that he wanted to get a copy of the score so his choir could perform it. After emailing back and forth for a while we decided the piece was too complicated for his choir. So I proposed that I compose him an original piece for his choir. I asked him for suggestions about what text I should use. Usually I would just find a bible verse or search the internet for a public domain sacred poem. I then found out that his wife is a poet. He sent me two of her poems and I thought they were fantastic. I decided to write two different pieces with the two poems. I composed the pieces in contrasting styles: one is a cappella and the other is with piano and is more melodic. I send him the pieces and he loved them. He moved some things around and told me they would be performing the pieces in the beginning of May. I booked my train ticket and was very excited to hear their hard work. The pieces sounded great and I hope to have recording posted on my website soon.

The last item that needs to be addressed is the recording session. Late this summer I am going to have a recording session for some of the songs from the show Soulmate? that I wrote. I have great musicians lined up and have picked dates. One of the songs from the show was featured in the first video log.

This song ("Goodbye") is going to be done at the recording session. I really hope to have recordings of this up as well, very soon.

That's all for now.

Thanks for reading!

Compositions

It finally Winter Break!!! Which ironically for me means get to work. I have a huge list of compositions and projects I want to get finished over the next five weeks. Some of the projects on that list are: the demo recordings for HINT, the new show Soulmate, several classical pieces, and a couple christmas pieces. I will try to continue to post with recordings or updates on the piece's progress.

I recently updated my website with a couple little things:

http://www.bradkempmusic.com/BradKempMusic2/Home.html

I have also recently put up a lot of videos to youtube so check that out too:

http://www.youtube.com/user/GuitarGODLOA

If you're too lazy to go to my website or youtube page, here is a new video to enjoy!

I also put up a couple new songs on my myspace page so check that out as well!!

http://www.myspace.com/bradkempmusic

Enjoy all the new things,

Brad

HINT

I have been working on "HINT" for the past week. It is a murder mystery musical that is loosely based on the board game clue. Here is a summary for everyone:
The show opens with William Williams talking to the audience about his death. He goes on to explain how he was having friends over for a diner party and right before it was going to start he was killed. The characters go through out the mansion in fear while many other people get killed off. After many hilarious scenes and songs the show comes to an exciting climax when everyone finds out who the killer is. The show keeps audience members on the edge of their seat while making them laugh the whole time.
I have had the script completed for a while ,but haven't had time to finish all of the songs. That's what I have been working on for the past week. I am really excited because I have had several different people tell me they would be willing to work on a staged reading when I complete it.
I will keep everyone updated with everything as I figure it out.
Brad

Video Logs

The video logs have been going great. So far I have two of them up and I am putting up a third one tomorrow. The first two videos combined have been watched about 110 times!!! I am very excited about the amount of views I am getting on the video logs. There has been a couple comments and ratings on the videos but overall not very much. So the favor that I am asking to everyone who reads this blog is to comment and rate the videos!!! I am also extremely excited about the number of subscribers I have gained from the video logs. After the first one I had about 5 subscribers. Now that I have put up the second video log, that number has more than doubled to 11. To most people that doesn't sound like much, but to me it is really awesome.
So some of the new exciting news. For video log three, I am going to have my friend Ali Arzeni sing. It is going to be great. She is singing the song "Waiting" from the show "Love (luv): an afterthought", a show that my friend Dan Lowry and I are working on. We have been working on it for the past couple months, very on and off, and it has gotten better and better. So everyone make sure to look on my youtube acount tomorrow night, for the release of video log three with Ali Arzeni.
That is all for now,
and remember to please rate and comment on the videos,
Thanks,
Brad

Vlog

Hey everyone,
For those of you who don't know I send out a newsletter for my website on the first of every month. This next one I am very excited about because I am launching my Video Log (Vlog) on Youtube. I am going to try to post on it once a week or so. It will have videos with myself playing some of my recent work. Most likely songs from "Soulmate?" or songs that I enjoy covering. I will also probably have some of my friends in the videos playing other instruments. I think it is going to be really cool.
Another cool thing is that Youtube updated their website. So now there is a new layout for Youtube accounts. Everyone should check it out.
Here is my account.
http://www.youtube.com/user/GuitarGODLOA
So check out my Vlog, it should be up in the next couple days.
That's all for now,
-Brad

Soulmate?

I have been working on a new show. It is a rock opera/concept album entitled "Soulmate?" It is based on the soulmate theory that there is a perfect person out there for everywhere. I started working on the script/lyrics for it. It is really different than anything I have ever worked on before because there is no actual script or diolouge. I am used to either writting music to lyrics that have already been written or writting diolouge in a script with soungs around them. It's strange to me bucause little "everday" diolouge that would usually be spoken is now sung. It's really challenging ,but also really fun. I hope to have some demo recordings of the songs out soon. I started working on it about a week ago and am just about done with the first act. It is going really well and I am really excited.
In other news, I updated my youtube account with a new video. The video is of my senior year pops concert, when I performed Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven". I transcribed the back-up vocals and co-wrote the violin part with Camryn. Check it out!



That's all for now.
Check back soon for those demo recordings,
Brad

Theatre

As everyone may know, if you read anything I actually write, I have been moving towards the choral end of things. I really love where my music is going. However, last night I watched the 2009 Tony Awards and I was blown away by the performance of "Next to Normal". I was expecting it to be good, but I had chills almost the entire time. If you didn't get a chance to see the Tony's check it out.

It completely re-sparked my love for musical theatre and the passion that can be conveyed on-stage. I immediately started thinking about the show I am working on with my friend and playwright Dan. I hope to be able to write something with that much emotion and that much feeling so I can make people feel the way I felt last night.
That's all for now,
Keep Dreaming like me,
Brad

LIT FEST

I just found out that I am performing with my friend Ricky Powell (www.rickypowellmusic.com) at Printers Row Lit Fest. We are performing at 2 o'clock on Sunday June 7th in the Columbia tent, located at Harrison and Dearborne (by the Starbucks and Chase and 7 11). Come check us out because it is going to be awesome. We are performing 5 Ricky Powell originals and many others including Man in the Mirror, Just the Two of Us, Tears in Heaven, and more... Be there at 2 to catch a great show and to be part of a huge literary festival.
In other news I am setting up a recording session with 8 of my very talented friends. We are planning on recording in mid July. The session will consitly of many of my recent choral works incuding "Gray Steel Morning", "Mother - A Message", and "Eternal Life - John 3:16-17". I hope to have the recordings up shortly after the session so make sure to check back for those.
Thats all for now.
-Brad

Summer!

It’s summer. Well at least for Columbia Students (and probably other colleges too). Unfortunately that means two jobs and no music classes, but that also means writing music, writing music, and writing music. It has been a while since I could just sit down and write some music. I am also looking forward to having jam sessions with my roommates. The other night my friend Ricky (www.rickypowellmusic.com) and I were jamming. I was playing my keyboard (split between upright bass and piano) and he was playing guitar. It was awesome. We played many different styles from minor blues to the chord progression from Something by the Beatles. I highly recommend it to any musicians, it’s something that is very relaxing. Maybe I’ll post a recording of the session soon.
-Brad

Destin, Florida

For the past week I have been in Destin, Florida for spring break. I spent most of my time there writing music. I started a multi-movement choral work entitled “Sounds of the Ocean”. I wrote five movements so far. The piece is for an 8-part choir, piano, cello, and bass drum. Obviously my inspiration for the piece came from the ocean and the beauty of my surroundings while in florida. As you can see in the picture in above, the sand is white and the water is turquoise. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. The movements so far include: I: Waves of Beauty, II: Storm at Sea, III: Destiny on Shore, IV: Sands of White, and V: Ships at Sail. I’m not sure how many movements I want the piece to end up having, but those are the first five. I hope to have a demo-recording on the site soon.
-Brad

Shows, Shows, Shows!

So right now I am working on five different shows. In order of performance they are: The Mystery of Madam Pearl which is a murder mystery. It is being performed at the Sherwood Conservatory of Music at 7:30 on April 8. I am one of three characters in this original mini-musical. The next show is Hello Again. I am playing drums in the pit band for the show. It is April 13-16 at various times. The next show is A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. I am assistant musical director and rehearsal accompanist. The performance dates are April 28 and 29 at 7:30. Parts I’ll Never Play is a musical cabaret directed by Amber Linde. I am the musical director for the show. I also co-wrote the opening number with Amber. The show is being performed at Manifest at 4:30 in the theatre building. The last show that I am currently working on is You Took Away My Flag. It is an original musical that I am acting in. The show dates and times have yet to be determined. That’s all that is new right now. Come check out the shows. They are all going to be great!
-Brad