“Juliet’s Death” from Romeo and Juliet the musical by Conrad Askland to words by William Shakespeare. Katherine Fisher as Juliet. Filmed February 2015 at the Historic Lincoln Theater. Visit the RJ musical website at http://www.RJmusical.com
Continue reading “Juliet’s Death – Romeo and Juliet the musical”
I composed this piece as part of a music production course for my Bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with Berklee College of Music. While taking classes I was on tour as music director with the Cirque du Soleil show Varekai and was fortunate enough to have our violin player from the show, David Piché, record the violin tracks while in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Continue reading “Skagit Impressions Six – Skagit Violin Dance”
“If I Could Go Anywhere” is a song I wrote back in the late 1990’s. Here is a new recording of the piece paired with photos of Skagit County, WA photographer Gary Brown. Part of our interdisciplinary collaboration of Pacific Northwest farmland photography with my original music for the “Gary Brown and Conrad Askland Project.”
On my tour with the Cirque du Soleil show Varekai, one of our destinations is the Oslo Spektrum arean in Oslo, Norway. The end of August 2017 was able to spend a week with my cousin to trace our ancestry back to my great grandparents on the island of Ona, Norway. It was our “back to our roots” tour.
“Tarragona” is a piano improvisation by Conrad Askland. Recorded July 31, 2017 in Tarragona, Spain.
In this video you can see the far stone wall behind the piano. That stone wall is part of a guard tower that is dated to be at least 800 years old. Used at one point as a guard tower and later as part of a winery.
I thought about the long history of this special place in Spain and let my fingers color the imagination of what I saw in my mind’s eye.
“Sunday Morning” from the Tarragona Piano Sessions by Conrad Askland. Session 3-2. Recorded July 31, 2017 at La Casamurada Recording Studio, Tarragona, Spain. Audio engineer: Jesus Rovira.
Live piano improvisations in the heat of summer. Gospel and Southern church piano style.
Solo piano improvisation on “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” (public domain). Part of Conrad Askland’s Tarragona Piano Sessions recorded July 31, 2017 in Tarragona, Spain.
La Casamurada recording studio. Audio engineer: Jesus Rovira
“St Clair” is a piano piece for my friend Judy St Clair. Judy and her husband were mentors of mine when I was younger and they guided me through many adventures. Some were sweet and some were painful, but still they were all adventures.
While playing this piece, I was remembering the light and playful camaraderie we had during those times. Style might be called a new age piano improvisation.
Recorded July 31, 2017 in Tarragona, Spain. Part of my “Tarragona Piano Improvisation Sessions” – Audio engineer: Jesus Rovira
(Song above is “Song for my Mother. Song 3-6 of the Tarragona Piano Sessions)
On July 31, 2017 I recorded four sessions of piano improvisations at La Casamurada recording studio in Tarragona, Spain. Most of the improvisations are light impressionistic pieces that some might call neo-classical or new age piano style.
Continue reading “The Tarragona Piano Sessions – Conrad Askland”
“Alberti’s Dream” is a piano improvisation by Conrad Askland. Recorded July 31, 2017 in Tarragona, Spain.
For this piece, I started with a simple Alberti Bass in Bb and then just followed where it led me.
Session 3-8 of my “Tarragona Piano Sessions” improvisations.
Alberti bass is a particular kind of accompaniment figure in music, often used in the Classical era, and sometimes the Romantic era. It was named after Domenico Alberti (1710–1740), who used it extensively, although he was not the first to use it.