It’s getting out of hand; I’m averaging one “stranger” request every day. Not from people who are interested in me, mostly from people interested in promoting themselves. Along with their requests, I’m receiving their event invites, multiple page invites and desperate messages with links to their music.

So in two weeks, I’ll be erasing my Facebook profile!

I appreciate your readership, and want you to continue reading. If you’re interested in my work and like receiving and reading my updates through Facebook, please become a fan of my Facebook page. My page is mostly identical to my profile so you should receive all the same updates through your news feed. I’ll also send out a Facebook page invite in the next few days (only one I promise!).

If you’re interested in self-promoting, adding strangers as friends is counterproductive. At best, they’ll ignore you. Most likely, they’ll see you as a spammer; nobody likes spammers. But they’ll definitely think you’re boring.

Learn how to stand out; learn how to make an impact.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

I’ve posted my performance of Vince Guaraldi’s Skating, live from a Christmas concert I performed on Dec 11/09. Hope you enjoy!

Also, I’ll be taking a blogging break and will be back on January 4th, 2010.

See you in the new year!

I have updated my reviews page with some articles written for the recent tour!

They include:

“Donnellys Classically Non-Traditional” - Oct 22/09 | Dale De Ruiter | Kamloops This Week (Full Article)
“Jazz Meets Opera” - Oct 16/09 | Mike Youds | Kamloops Daily News (Full Article) (News Article)
“Tickling a Musical Fantasy” - Oct 15/09 | Dale Bass | Kamloops This Week (Full Article) (News Article)
A Perfect Mix of Jazz and Opera - Sept 28/09 | Sharon Fitzsimmins | Barrie Examiner (Full Article)

For anyone interested, I’ll be featured on a CBC radio show called Hot Air on Saturday, October 17/09.

The times:
5:05pm Pacific
6:05pm Mountain
7:05pm Central
8:05pm Eastern
9:05pm Atlantic
9:35pm Newfoundland

on CBC Radio One (Pacific region)
Listen online: http://www.cbc.ca/hotair/

Hello Friends!

Tribute to Doug Riley
Juno-nominated jazz pianist extraordinaire Chris Donnelly performs music written and inspired by the late, great Canadian legend, Doug Riley (aka Dr. Music). Highlights include Peace Dance, Dinosaurus and Child Eyes from Riley's solo piano album Freedom.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 @ 12:00 noon
Chris Donnelly, solo piano
@ the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, ON
No Cover!!

Also, October 6th marks the beginning of a 2 week tour of Western Canada.  The details:

October 6, 8:30pm | Winnipeg, MB | the Centre Culturel Franco Manitobain
October 7 10:30am | Vancouver, BC | Workshop for BCRMTA
October 8, 8:30pm | Vancouver, BC | The Cellar
October 9, 4:00pm | Victoria, BC | Workshop @ Tom Lee Music
October 9, 8:00pm | Victoria, BC | Hermann's Jazz Club
October 11, 7:00pm | Colwood, BC | Church of the Advent
October 15, 9:00pm | Calgary AB | The Beat Niq
October 16, 9:30am | Edmonton, AB | Workshop for ARMTA
October 16, 9:00pm | Edmonton, AB | Yardbird Suite
October 17, 9:00pm | Edmonton, AB | Yardbird Suite
October 18, 7:00pm | Salmon Arm, BC | Salmar Classic Theatre
October 19, 7:30pm | Kamloops, BC | Kamloops Alliance Church

Please visit my schedule for more details.  

Hope to see you!

Chris

My apologies if your RSS reader has been flooded with old posts!

I’m am now forwarding the feed through Feedburner (as opposed to using Rapidweaver’s raw feed), and just finished experimenting with its settings. The feed should be much more readable and accessible now.

Thanks for your patience!

Chris

This post is a reflection on my experience as a participant in the 2009 Montreux Solo Jazz Piano Competition in July.

A truth about music competitions: Their objective is to reward excellence; Prizes are given to the most excellent participants.

This truth breaks down when you define excellence. Most people assume it refers to artistic excellence, but they’re often disappointed when they realize that artistic excellence can mean so many different things to different people. They’re especially disappointed when excellence is sought in non-musical forms. Like a participant who is excellent at drawing a crowd, or excellent at creating hype, or excellent at influencing judges! When it comes to music competitions, you can’t rule anything out. What do you expect when things are built on shady principles? No arts competition is immune to this inherent paradox: Presenting excellence objectively.

An interesting thought: Notice that even though we are aware of this absurdity, people rarely question the merits of competitions and competition winners because the language in their presentation compels us to assume artistic excellence is always achieved. Especially when we are far removed from the actual experience. For example, you may pick up a newspaper and the headline reads ‘Joe wins first place in music competition,’ or you see a two-minute news segment on a local pianist who is awarded first prize in a piano competition. Their presentation and language will always demand that you accept the implied objectivity.

From an extreme viewpoint, one could say that anytime we organize, participate in, or acknowledge the validity of music competitions, we are promoting this absurdity and giving in to the language that’s describing the impossible. It’s the willing suspension of disbelief. It can occur obviously, like being a judge or a participant. But it can also be subtle, like reading ‘Chris Donnelly places 2nd in the 2007 Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition’ and subconsciously validating my name and music.

It’s too bad that competitions are so enticing; there’s something in them for everyone. For artists, it’s a great opportunity to network with other artists and (if lucky), walk away with some money! Judges are paid and held in high esteem. For presenters, they act as great marketing gimmicks. And for the public, they can be engaging, satisfying, dramatic and participatory. Music competitions will demand that everyone form an opinion despite their level of expertise thus they act as a means for the public to participate in the music community (and the absurdity). Everyone only has to sell his/her soul!

Actually, I’d like to believe I’m leasing it…hence this blog.

In regards to Montreux, excellence was at the mercy of these judges:

Chucho Valdés (Cuba) - presiding judge
Al Copley (USA)
Moncef Genoud (Switzerland)
André Manoukian (France)
Denis Matsuev (Russia)
Aziza Mustafa Zadeh (Azerbaijan)
Leo Tardin (Switzerland)

I didn’t speak to the judges about their decisions. I have my opinions, as does everyone else. But I decided that my experience as a participant overrides my experience as an artist, pianist and educator and so, for a number of reasons, it would be inappropriate for me to express them here. But I would encourage you to make your own decisions! The participants:

Zoltan Balogh (Hungary)
Elmar Brass (Germany)
Claude Diallo (Suisse) – Encouragement Prize
Chris Donnelly (Canada)
Thomas Enhco (France)
Beka Gochiashvili (Georgia) — 1st Prize (Shared)
Christian Li (USA)
Regina Litvinova (Russia)
Jorge Luis Pacheco (Cuba)
Peter Pinter (Hungary)
Mathis Picard (France)
Kuba Pluzek (Poland) – Encouragement Prize
Isfar Rzayev-Sarabski (Azerbaijan) — 1st Prize (Shared) & Public Prize
Matthieu Roffe) (France)
Xaview Thollard (France)
Franz Von Chossy (Germany) — 2nd Prize

Did the judges make the right decisions? I’ll let you decide. Maybe you agree, maybe you disagree.

But one thing’s for sure: The winners were excellent!

Back in Toronto!

In case you didn’t hear:

1st Prize (Shared) - Beka Gochiashvili (13 year old from Georgia)
1st Prize (Shared) - Isfar Sarabsky (Azerbaijan)
2nd Prize - Franz Von Chossy (Germany)
Encouragement Prize - Claude Diallo (Switzerland)
Encouragement Prize - Kuba Pluzek (Poland)
Public Prize - Isfar Sarabsky (Azerbaijan)

The judges:
Chucho Valdés (Cuba) - presiding judge
Al Copley (USA)
Moncef Genoud (Switzerland)
André Manoukian (France)
Denis Matsuev (Russia)
Aziza Mustafa Zadeh (Azerbaijan)
Leo Tardin (Switzerland)

I’ll be posting a blog about this in the next few weeks. In the meantime, I’ve posted my performance of Bill Evans’ Very Early on the post page (Link). Hope you enjoy, stay tuned!

Warning: Light blogging ahead. I’m off to Montreux tomorrow.

Here’s another one of the tracks I submitted as part of my Montreux application. It’s Herbie Hancock’s Chan’s Song. (Link)

Be back soon!

I’m happy to announce that I’ve been selected as a finalist in the 2009 Bosendorfer Montreux Jazz Solo Piano Competition in July. Two things are for sure: I am super excited, and It will make for some interesting blog topics!

I have posted one of the tracks I submitted as part of my application. It’s Joe Henderson’s Isotope. (Link)

Hope you enjoy!

Congrats to all the National Jazz Awards winners! Thanks to Bill and Kris King for a great show. For anyone interested, here’s my performance of Donna Lee (Variations). Hope you enjoy!

You can access this video and many others on my Post page.

Welcome!

I thought I’d start blogging. I think It’s important for artists to be transparent with their ideas and experience, and blogging can be an effective tool for enhancing relationships. The only problem is that it’s going to be a hard habit to start, although, there isn’t a shortage of topics to reflect on. A quick list I made:

Music: The Piano, Improvisation, Composition, Composers, Learning, Bad Habits, Theory, Musicians, Recordings, Teaching, Performing, Practicing, Technique

Business: Marketing/Promotion, Relationships, Booking, Economy, The Internet, People, Websites, Blogs, The News, Making Money, Teaching, School

Aesthetics: Good/Bad Music, Purpose of Art, Purpose of Artists, Creation vs. Recreation, Art and Culture, Ownership, Genre,

Stay tuned, hope you enjoy!

Hello Friends!

An exciting new website update I'd like to share with you:

First, I've joined the blog bandwagon (www.chrisdonnellymusic.com/Blog/blog.html) where I will be regularly sharing news, thoughts and ideas.  Feel free to subscribe to the RSS Feed and leave comments!

Also, I've added another page called POST (www.chrisdonnellymusic.com/Post/Post.html) where you can easily access photo albums, audio clips, videos and transcriptions.  I've just posted transcriptions (in PDF form) of some Doug Riley solos.  More to come, hope you enjoy!

All the best!

Chris