Wednesday, November 30, 2011

It's Our Anniversary!

Last year we had a whacky idea to start a new music blog and now Alphabet Soup is a year old!

If you're new to Alphabet Soup or just want to reminisce, read our first introductory post here, where we talked about our dreams and goals for this blog. 

Thank you for your readership!

This blog project has been and continues to be a central aspect of our lives as composers and we have been so grateful to all of you for your readership, feedback, suggestions, contributions, and encouragement. For us, Alphabet Soup is a way to explore musical ideas, share an appreciation and awareness of new music, and, at times, commiserate about the difficulties of pursuing such a challenging career path. It has been really fantastic to read your comments and opinions!

What has happened in a year?

In the past year we have written about competitions, gender, the creative process, economics and a wide variety of other topics that relate to our field. We post news stories that we find interesting and relevant to the new music scene and we made a resource page for composers looking for frugal ways to pursue their musical endeavors. 

What will the next year bring?

In Alphabet Soup's second year we will continue to work on our regular posting and will also begin some new projects. We hope to have more representation of other perspectives on our blog, through guest bloggers, surveys, and interviews. If you are a composer or a performer and have ideas or would like to write a post (small or large!), please don't hesitate to contact us. Coming in December will be a page dedicated to listing and linking new music ensembles, festivals, and concert series by state. We hope that this new page will raise awareness of local new music scenes and provide a resource for composers, performers, and new music devotees. 

It has become clear in today's do-it-yourself cultural and brutal economic climate that artists need communities of support and cannot work in isolation, contrary to any lingering romantic beliefs. We hope that Alphabet Soup will continue to provide at least a part of a community aspect to our readers. We've enjoyed the year and are looking forward to 2012. Thank you for reading and keep the comments coming!

Posted by Sarah and Natalie

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