TUNE-IN FESTIVAL SUCCESS
 The Park Avenue Armory's Tune-In Festival, programmed by 8bb, made a big splash in NYC. Two out of the three concerts we curated were sold out, and Inuksuit, the festival's grand climax, became something of a New York must-see event. Several home-made videos from Inuksuit have appeared on YouTube, which, although they can't capture the live experience, at least provide some documentation of the event: click here, here, here, here and here.
The festival received many and varied previews and reviews, including the Wall Street Journal, Time-Out New York, City Arts, Capital New York and WNYC (we were also a winter critic's pick by Steve Smith on WNYC).
The New Yorker's venerated classical music critic Alex Ross went to all of the shows and wrote a mixed but overall positive review that took 8bb's concept seriously and summed up the festival as "an ambitious, sometimes messy affair that discovered new possibilities in the space and ended on a note of quasi-spiritual transcendence." Ross ended his review with a summation of his feelings about the festival's climactic work, John Luther Adams's monumental Inuksuit:
"It is tricky to write about an event such as this. Because both ensemble and audience were in motion, no two perceptions of the performance were the same, and no definitive record of it can exist. Furthermore, anyone who ventures to declare in a public forum that "Inuksuit" was one of the most rapturous experiences of his listening life—that is how I felt, and I wasn't the only one—might be suspected of harboring hippie-dippie tendencies. The work is not explicitly political, nor is it the formal expression of an individual sensibility, although John Luther Adams certainly deserved the ecstatic and prolonged ovation that greeted him when he acknowledged the crowd from the center of the Drill Hall. In the end, several young couples seemed to deliver the most incisive commentary when, amid the obliterating tidal wave of sound, they began making out."
The New York Times reviewed Thursday's and Sunday's concerts, and Musical America and MusicWeb International wrote wrap-up reviews of the whole festival.
Thanks to all who performed and attended, to the fabulous Park Ave Armory and their tireless staff, and to our own staff, including our overworked sound bloke, Ryan, our very patient production lady, Rachel, and our amazing Admin Director, Chris.
ON A WIRE RECORDING RELEASED
 Our recording of Jennifer Higdon's concerto On A Wire was released on February 22nd. This disc is eighth blackbird's first concerto recording as well as the premiere release from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's in-house label, ASO Media. The ASO under Music Director Robert Spano play like a band possessed, and the sound, courtesy of the eagle-eared (yes, I said "eagle-eared") Elaine Martone and Michael Bishop, is spectacular. Reviews are just starting to trickle in, with a positive early review from The Philadelphia Inquirer.
COMP COMP FINALISTS!
 Over the course of several months, we whittled down our composition contest pool from 504 to a final 3. And it was not without its struggles: more than 150 hours of judging time was needed; 143 cups of coffee were drunk; 34.5 arguments were fought; one very large bag of M&Ms was consumed. We thank our partners, MakeMusic and the American Composers Forum, for their support.
The three finalists are: Andy Akiho of New Haven, Conn., Eric Lindsay of Bloomington, Ind., and Kurt Rohde of San Francisco, Calif. Each finalist will receive a cash prize and will write a piece for eighth blackbird, to be workshopped and performed in fall 2011. One composer will be chosen to receive the final prize, which includes an additional cash award and a future public performance by eighth blackbird.
We were floored by the quality of submissions, and wanted to recognize twelve additional composers, whose pieces made it to our last internal round of judging. They are: Alex Freeman (Northfield, Minn.); Sean Friar (Princeton, N.J.); J.M. Gerraughty (Nashua, N.H.); Aaron Gervais (San Francisco, Calif.); Yotam Haber (Brooklyn, N.Y.); Derek Johnson (Carmel, Ind.); Amy Kirsten (New Haven, Conn.); Zibuokle Martinaityte (New York, N.Y.); Douglas Pew (Erlanger, Ky.); Jeremy Podgursky (Bloomington, Ind.); Mike Solomon (Gainesville, Fla.); Daniel Wohl (New Haven, Conn.).
SPRING MADNESS
Our annual Spring mantra: It's very good to be busy, it's very good to be busy, it's very good to be busy.
Texas and Indiana: We jetted off to Austin (just in time to miss South by Southwest) for a gig on March 23 at UT Austin's fabulous Texas Performing Arts series. This was the season's final performance of the Mackey/Eckert extravaganza, Slide. Next we headed to Indianapolis, to entertain the Hoosiers on March 26 with a program including the local premiere of Double Sextet. Dallas had us next, for our farewell visit to SMU as their Meadows Prize Recipients.
World premieres with choir: At the beginning of April we make our first visit to Atlanta since the Higdon concerto premiere in June 2010. We visit Kennesaw State University to play a concert on April 2 that includes the world premiere of a beautiful new work for sextet and women's choir by Nico Muhly (who sets a quite startling text by George Herbert). Another world premiere for 8bb and choir, this time by Chen Yi for mixed voices, is scheduled for April 8, in collaboration with University of Richmond's Schola Cantorum.
Michigan: A Michigan mini-tour takes us to a Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival fundraiser on April 10; a day of collaborative performances at Grand Valley State University on April 13, at 12pm and at 8pm; and two performances of Higdon's On a Wire with the West Michigan Symphony on April 15 and 16.
Reich and England: Then it's off to New York and London to celebrate Steve Reich's 75th birthday with concerts at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium on April 30 and at London's Barbican Centre (our London debut!) on May 8. We play two additional shows in England, at Bristol's Colston Hall on May 10 and at Bexhill's De La Warr Pavilion on May 12.
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