Greetings all! 

The first wave of shows for the 100 Years of Spring tour starts in 3 weeks - and I couldn't be more excited! We've already received almost $8,000 in donations (only some of those thru the Artspire page, HERE; the rest from private donations); press releases are going out, contacts being made...it's truly exciting! The first official show will be Friday June 8th at the Broad Street Market in Harrisburg PA at 11 am, followed by a 7 pm evening performance in Lancaster as part of the Lancaster Summer Arts Festival. The Lancaster show will feature a guest appearance by my old friend flautist Tom Reese. We'll be premiering a new work composed specifically for this performance titled "Cumberland Spring".

The current west coast run includes July 1st at Alva's Showroom in San Pedro CA (LA area). We're working on a San Francisco date, most likely July 3rd or 5th, and hopfeully supplanted by a House Concert. If you of know anyone (with a really nice piano, that is..!) who wants to host a concert have them get in touch with me. 

We also have a new press pic courtesy the official Neil Alexander & NAIL Peter Salo, and old friend who does great work. His images will also be featured on the cover of the (almost ready) Solo Piano Vol 1 CD, which should be available in June. 

Stay tuned - things are just warming up. Thanks for your support!

Greetings folks! Wanted to let you know that the  "100 Years Of Spring" Artspire profile page is finally LIVE. This means we can start actually taking donations. I need to figure out how & if it works with, or in place of, programs like Kickstarter; but once everything's in place the notifications will go out on all the usual social media chanels. :)

Meanwhile, here's a link to the page:

http://www.artspire.org/DirectoryDetail/tabid/95/id/1249/Default.aspx

Thanks all - and stay tuned. :)

Just a quick update: Yesterday (Saturday) we received the contract and paperwork for our Fiscal Sponsorship with Artspire, a program of the New York Foundation For The Arts. This means we can start to take official tax deductable donations for the 100 Years project. There's quite a bit of paperwork to do first, but it looks good.  Stay tuned for more info!

 - Neil

With the 100th anniversary of the Paris premier of  the "Rite Of Spring" fast approaching, and after performing it on the piano for, oh I don't know, 25 years? -  I had this idea to perform my solo transcription in Paris 100 years to the day (more likely to the week, but you gt the idea). My Partner Nita Rae, who consistently thinks in bigger terms than I do, had this fantastic idea connecting The Rite Of Spring with Spring itself, and concevied a tour concept where the primary venues would be Public Markets - those big spaces where traditionally a village would come together to buy the week's food. This also connects with the current trend to support you local farmers by buying locally grown produce, a practice we've been doing for quite a few years as members of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture, if you must ask). We're going to attempt to materialize this tour with funding (which will include Kickstarter at some point), and to that end have applied for Fiscal Sponsorship. We'll also be asking for support from piano companies (as we'll probably have to rent them in some of these places) and local & gourmet food companies. The dream is to take the tour internationally, with performances across the US & Canada, Europe, the Ukraine & Russia, and eventually South America.

Some of the markets we've been looking at are the Redding Terminal Market in Philly, Pikes Place Market in Seattle, The Saint Lawrence Market in Toronto CN, & Selfridges Food Hall in Birmingham UK. I'll also be "filling in" tour dates with shows at standard venues and House Concerts, and lecture Demonstrations at Educational Institutions. At the moment we're working on some Northeast dates and a Seattle/Portland/SanFrancisco/LA run for 2nd half of June. Our only confirmed date so far is June 30th in San Pedro in Alva's showroom. 

I've also started working on self publishing my transcription using Sibelius. This might take a minute...! Halfway through the tour I will record a performance for later release. 

Anyway, that's the big plan! Look for updates to this blog as dates get added, and as other interesting things happen. Stay tuned!

This is my online journal for the "100 Years of Spring" Project. Gigs, where I'm looking, who I'm talking to, news updates etc. Please stay tuned!