1. LAUREN KENNEDY’s album Lauren Kennedy: Here and Nowis available! You can order the album today exclusively from PSClassics, but the official release is November 6th, at which point it will be available everywhere. Look for track #5, “My Lifelong Love,” which is mine. I have several friends with songs on the album, too, so it’s guaranteed to be a fun and interesting listen. Watch for it on iTunes in a few weeks, too.

2. I just got word that the goal for the published songbook for This Ordinary Thursday: The Songs of Georgia Stitt will be available mid-December, but they’re already taking pre-orders at Amazon. Very exciting!

3. Thanks to conductor Judith Clurman, I’ve got another choral piece coming out for publication! This piece is called “De Profundis” and was premiered by International Orange Chorale in San Francisco under the direction of Jeremy Faust. After that, Judy Clurman conducted it with a choir at Girton College at Cambridge in England, and now it’s to be published in her series with Hal Leonard. YAY! Watch for more details here. Unlike my other choral pieces, this one is a cappella SATB, but like some of the other choral pieces, the text is again by one of my favorite poets, Christina Rossetti.

4. Finally, I’m excited to announce that for the rest of the year I’m going to be working as the Assistant Music Director of a new NBC TV show called CLASH OF THE CHOIRS. It will air as a special holiday program for four nights the week before Christmas, and it will feature five celebrities and their choirs in a fantastically competitive but good-spirited “sing-off.”

5. Coming up in the weeks ahead, I’m performing a few songs at Cal Poly Pomona University with Susan Egan on November 8th (info here), I’m doing a master class at the Orange County High School of the Arts (OCHSA) on November 9th, and I’m doing a FREE concert at Santa Monica College on November 17th. Check my website for more details on all these appearances!

If you didn’t read last week’s blog, take a look. I’d love your input. Thanks!