Hello everyone, I hope you're all doing well and managing to maintain your sanity these last 12 months. With no music festivals of conferences for us to attend, it's been a fairly quiet winter for us this time around. it looks like the Midwest Clinic in Chicago is planning on being live this December, so I'm guessing many other conferences will be too, so I'll probably get to see many of you in person this time around.

I've been spending a lot of time behind the scenes working on small updates to the web site. We're starting to integrate a platform that allows for instant PDF download access to pieces when available. We have one publisher now fully integrated (Canticle / E.C. Schirmer), and have started working on adding others. For now though, if you want a PDF version of a piece of music, just ask me. Each publisher is handling this differently and I can let you know what's available.

For today I had 3 topics to talk about. GIa and Meredith Music came out with a few new books, but without the Midwest Conference in Chicago you may not have found out about them. I have a few updates on the status of titles from Kalmus and LudwigMasters Music. Finally, Maecenas just released 2 more chamber wind works you may want to look into before the semester ends. I hope some of these schools who have had not delved much into chamber music in the past will recognize the importance of chamber winds playing and will continue to keep such ensembles going.

Meredith Music came out with a number of new books this last year that you may not have seen since there was no Midwest Conference last year. I'm already starting work on updating my reference books files for this December (we just rented our 20 booth spaces today), but for now here's a look at a few materials that may be of interest. Click on the image to go to our website's listing for a few more details and to place an order. I'll send another book listing in the late fall before we head to Midwest, look forward to seeing many of you there.

I think most of you know the gist of the Kalmus and LudwigMasters situation by now. Short version, their catalog has been picked up by Lauren Keiser Music, which is working on getting the catalog reprinted, but they've had to prioritize certain pieces in order to meet demand. The list of works available again is very slowly growing. I know a few of you have had orders pending for several months now. I'm keeping tabs on all of these and will be making another round of checks shortly. I've also found that some of their chamber music settings actually went to a different publisher, so there are few more chamber works I can get again.

Every piece in the catalog has to be reformatted for the new printers. It takes a little time to do this, thus the need to prioritize the high volume titles first. Their rule of thumb is, if there is $100 worth of backorders for a print, they will move it up to the reprint queue. So if you want to get a band work, but it's scheduled for reprint yet, putting it on backorder will increase the chances of it getting reprinted. If you decide you'll try ordering it later instead, they never get the backorder request so until orders cross the threshold, it will stay out of print. I recommend that if you want to program anything by LudwigMasters or Kalmus, get your request in several months before you need it just in case.

There is one bit of big news though. The Ingolf Dahl Sinfonietta originally was not picked up by Lauren Keiser Music because the copyright holder, Tetra Music, is almost exclusively a choral music company. Lauren Keiser Music didn't want to get into the choral publishing realm so they passed on those titles, not realizing the one big wind band exception in that catalog. Fortunately, I was able to talk to both Lauren Keiser Music and Tetra and they have managed to work out an agreement to bring the Sinfonietta back into print. It will be several weeks before it is off the printer, but the important thing is that scores will be available again for symposiums and classes. Drop me a line if you want to get put on the list for a copy of the score or set.

Most of the major conducting symposium type chamber works from Kalmus and LudwigMasters are back in print, but if you plan to use one this summer please drop me a line and I can confirm if your participants will be able to get copies readily. And if you want to do more chamber music with your ensembles next year, there's plenty in the catalog that should be more readily available by next fall.

Two more chamber wind works have just been released by Maecenas Music. First, Malcolm Binney has done a nice transcription of the Edward Elgar Chanson de Matin, Op. 15 No. 2 for woodwind choir. Second, Adam Gorb has taken his rousing wind band work Bohemian Revelry and transcribed it for a chamber winds setting of 14 players. To see more about these works, click the image above to download a PDF file with information on their entire range of chamber works, along with links to view the scores. You can also find all of these on our website, including recordings for several of these piece. I currently have most of these in stock and can typically get more within 2 weeks, so let me know if you want to try any of these out.

I'm signed up for a vaccine and hopefully I'll be able to get it within the next month. We opened up the store to the public on April 1, though we're still asking for masks for the time being. Still, if you live in the area and need a change of scenery, you can always stop by and browse about. Even if you don't live in the area and want a change of scenery, feel free to take a little holiday in the St. Louis area. Until then, take care and stay sane for the last few months of the academic year.