It’s turned out to be a far busier July than I had expected!

These days I am busy with all sorts of preparation for the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles’ upcoming concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The concert is called Sure On This Shining Night, and while my primary job is as pianist, for this concert I am also serving as an arranger, singer, and beatboxer.

So my hands are full lately; tonight I’m finishing up work on an arrangement for the GMCLA Alive Music Project Youth Chorus (that needs a cool acronym or something), which will perform a three-song set on the concert. The arrangement is a medley of Like A Prayer (Madonna), I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Whitney Houston), and Just Dance (Lord Gaga). I hope that excites you.

And hey, even if it doesn’t excite you, you should still come to the concert. If pop divas aren’t your thing, then perhaps beautiful choral works by Eric Whitacre and Morten Lauridsen are. And if even that won’t do, then you might enjoy “The End of It All”, a newly commissioned piece for choir and electronica composed by the DJ John Tejada, to be performed by the chorus alongside the composer on stage.

I still haven’t quite come to grips with the fact that I’ll be playing piano in Disney Hall in three weeks. There’s a lot of practicing and rehearsing to do between now and then – not to mention the fact that I still need to pick out a good tie.

Beatboxing…to a Michael Jackson arrangement…in Disney Hall. We’re not trying to make any big postmodern statements or anything, but that’s what I’ll be doing in three weeks. One of many things I’ll be doing, actually. I hope you can come and check it out.