Well, it’s been a minute since I’ve posted to my website! Many things have happened! First Covid! Then, my wife and I decided to retire from teaching! The other kind of interesting feature of this interlude is that I became very interested in 3D artwork! Who knew? This was a direct result of Covid. As all of us were shut in, music people needed ways to allow their ensembles to perform. Many “virtual ensembles” appeared on various websites. My first ventures into this arena created “Zoom-like” presentations where all the performers were little blocks on the screen. I then noticed some of Eric Whitacre’s virtual choirs, and I thought it would be great to do some 3D virtual ensembles. That led me to find the free program, Blender, and, well, I just loved working in this idiom! I’ll probably eventually add a 3D page to this site, but for now I’ll post my “magnum opus” as far as 3D is concerned.

After learning the basics of 3D modeling, I decided it would be nice to allow the ensembles to “perform” in their own space, as it were. So, I started re-creating the auditorium at the high school. Then, later, I created the interior of First Presbyterian Church, in Spartanburg, in order to allow the choir to “sing” in their own Sanctuary. That’s probably my magnum opus in the 3D realm at the moment. I taped the director in front of a greenscreen both facing the camera and turned away from the camera. He was “conducting” a tape of the organ. Then, we had the singers and instrumentalists perform their individual parts with earphones on while listening to the organ part. Anyway, here is the video: