A Note from the Gracenotes Editor

Hello, and welcome to the 2nd monthly edition of Gracenotes - the Sibelius USA newsletter to Sibelius enthusiasts in the North, Central and South Americas. Gracenotes is meant to help you keep informed of upcoming events, software updates and other news items concerning Sibelius, our products and the people using them. Gracenotes provides a thumbnail sketch of the various topics we believe may be of interest to the Sibelius community. We hope you'll click through to learn more about the issues important to you. Please forward the newsletter to your friends and colleagues as well.

We are making a concerted effort to develop an ongoing dialogue with all of you, and we're trying to do this through surveys, comment forms on our website, chat pages and even letters to the editor of this humble newsletter - which, incidentally can be sent to gracenotes@sibelius.com. Your opinions about our products, services and future direction are invaluable to us, and we strongly encourage you to speak up whenever you feel the inclination.

Mark Ruch
Editor - Gracenotes

Can You Imagine…

4 grade students composing for a string and woodwind quintet?

This is the question posed in one of our recent ad campaigns, and the impetus of the question is the amazing work being done by students and teachers at the Vermont MIDI Project. If you haven't heard about it yet, Vermont MIDI is an innovative program that uses Sibelius technology to teach music composition to students in grades 3 - 12. Students exchange digital iterations of their scores with professional composition mentors through a password protected website using the (free of course) Sibelius Scorch player.

In the above photo, Annapurna, a 4th grade Vermont MIDI composer follows the score of her first original composition while a quintet of professional musicians, including members of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra prepare to perform and record it as part of the Vermont MIDI Project's Opus 9 Concert and CD. To see and playback the scores of Annapurna and her fellow student composers, please visit http://www.vtmidi.org. CDs of the Opus 9 Concert are also available for purchase.

Eva Sachsse, a Vermont MIDI composer and fifth grader at Marion Cross School in Norwich, VT, is the elementary division winner of the National Student Electronic Composition Talent Search! sponsored by the National School Board Association and MENC:The National Association for Music Education. Her composition will be performed at the NSBA Technology + Learning Conference General Session in Denver, Colorado in October, 2004. She and her teacher, Carolyn Keck, will also take part in a panel discussion about the use of the computer as a tool for music composition along with the middle and high school division winners.

To download and play Sibelius Scorch files of Eva's composition, please go to: http://www.vtmidi.org/Eva/index.html.

Christina Koller, a Vermont MIDI composer and student at Bridport Central School, was the 2002 winner of the National Student Electronic Composition Talent Search! sponsored by the National School Board Association and MENC. Her composition was performed at the NSBA Technology + Learning Conference General Session in Dallas. Christina also participated in the recent Opus 9 concert - a concert of music written by students in the Vermont MIDI Project performed live by professional musicians. To read more about Christina and play some of her compositions, please visit: http://www.vtmidi.org/christina.html.

Nicole Titley, a Vermont MIDI composer and 13 year old composer who is also from Bridport Central School, got a pleasant surprise when the string quartet Ethel decided to perform her composition in their concert at the Flynn Theater this past May. Nicole and schoolmates, Christina Koller (there's that name again) and Matt Burkins were also part of a group of young composers who were invited to bring their work for a reading session on with Ethel sponsored by the Vermont Youth Orchestra. Following the two-hour session, Ethel announced that they would like to include Nicole's piece Metamorphosis in their program. Nicole's score for Metamorphosis can be viewed and listened to here: http://www.vtmidi.org/opus9.html.

Free Sibelius Scorch Player

If for some reason you haven't done it yet, please download the free Sibelius Scorch player and start listening and posting your notation. Viewing and listening to scores of the Vermont MIDI composers is a good way to test it out. Please download the player (it usually takes less than a minute) by going to: http://www.sibelius.com/products/scorch/.

Can You Imagine Sibelius In Your Classroom?

We're hoping to hear from others who are changing the rules of music education. Please let us know how you are using technology to unlock the potential of your music students by visiting http://www.sibelius.com/imagine/.

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New! G7 Kontakt Edition

We are pleased to announce the release of G7 Kontakt Edition, our latest version of G7, now with stunningly realistic samples for playback!

Designed for guitarists and songwriters, G7 Kontakt Edition is the ultimate tool to create music quickly and easily. You can create lead sheets, generate drum patterns, add lyrics, chord diagrams, scan printed music, and much more. G7 Kontakt Edition also gives you the ability to create MP3s and CDs of your music, and contains an enhanced Guitar Guide.

• For more information about G7 Kontakt Edition, click here
• To listen to the new Kontakt Player samples from Native Instruments, click here
• Download the G7 Kontakt Edition demo, click here
• To buy G7 Kontakt Edition today, please click here
• If you are a G7 user and wish to upgrade to G7 Kontakt Edition, please click here
• A free downloadable update to G7 v3.3 is also available for G7 v2.7 users. Please click here for more information

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SibeliusMusic.com Stores

Have you ever wanted to setup your own sheet music website? Sibelius has just launched SibeliusMusic Stores, which allows users to publish and sell their music within a personalized, easy to use and secure online environment. A monthly subscription provides E-commerce facilities to handle all accounting and transactions. Visitors and buyers can view and listen to your scores using the Sibelius Scorch player (MIDI) and downloadable MP3's (audio).

To see a really great example of what can be accomplished with the SibeliusMusic Stores service, take a look at Sammy Nestico's personal store pages. We're certain that most of you are familiar with Sammy, but for those who aren't, he's simply one of the most accomplished composer/arranger/performer/educators we know of. The four-time Grammy winner is probably best known for having been the composer/arranger for the Count Basie orchestra between 1970 and 1984, but his bio is a who's who of recording artists and television shows, the details of which can be found at his SibeliusMusic Store: click here.

In any event, we strongly encourage you to take a look at Sammy's SibeliusMusic Store, and get an idea of how this service may work for you as well. Sammy is making full use of the E-commerce functionality, allowing buyers to purchase parts separately for his big band scores. Please click here to learn more.

For more information about SibeliusMusic Stores, click here .

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Featured Sibelius Users

Bob Mintzer		Jazz Heavyweight Bob Mintzer has just released a new CD featuring his big band. The album is titled Bob Mintzer Big Band Live at MCG - available through MCG Records (a division of Telarc). Details can be found on Bob's website http://www.bobmintzer.com/ As many of you probably know, Bob is a composer and monster saxophone player who has recorded with some of the most talented jazz musicians to have ever walked the planet. A short list of these would include: Art Blakey, Al Foster, Buddy Rich, Peter Erskine, Jaco Pastorius, Lyle Mays, Teruo Nakamura, Randy Brecker, and the list goes on - though it should obviously not exclude the Yellow Jackets, nor the Bob Mintzer Big Band.
Bob is currently touring with both the Yellow Jackets and his Grammy winning big band. If you can't get to New York City to hear the big band in September, you may want to check out a streaming video of a recent performance - currently available at http://ntjazz.com/Jazz_Festival/2004/fest04archives.htm. You can also find Bob's arrangements and books through his website, at http://www.bobmintzer.com/publications.html

Jim Casella, Percussion Arranger for the Santa Clara Vanguard helped the SCV pull down the 2004 DCI High Percussion Award. They scored an amazing 19.75 out of a possible 20 playing Jim's arrangement for their program: “Attraction: The Music of Scheherazade.” Fellow Sibelius user and Brass Arranger Key Poulan also enjoyed a hugely successful season, helping SCV claim third place overall at the DCI World Championships, Denver, CO.

Congratulations also to Percussion Arrangers Tom Aungst and Neil Larrivee of The Cadets, who finished right behind the Vanguard, in 4th place. The Cadets performed a program called "Living in The Past" featuring the music of Jethro Tull.

		Hawaiian Sibelius users are doing great things in the Aloha State. The Hawaii State Senate recently honored Sibelius user Henry Kaleialoha Allen for his long and distinguished career as one of Hawaii's premier musicians, composers and educators. Several days later, the Governor of Hawaii declared April 4 as Henry Kaleialoha Allen Day. Henry was featured this past month at the Hawaii International Jazz festival in Maui. Henry is especially known for his mastery of the Hawaiian steel guitar, which he began playing at an early age. By age 15, he was on stage with the late Alfred Apaka, and went on to master both the six-string guitar and ukulele. In fact, Henry plays ukulele the way jazz superstar George Benson plays guitar - which may account for the fact that they've become good friends and colleagues over the years. We don't know how he gets those voicing's with only 4 strings, but we encourage you to buy his CD's and hear it for yourself. You can learn more about Henry (and buy his sheet music) at his SibeliusMusic Store: click here. Hawaiian Songwriting Teacher Stan Rubens is a recording artist, songwriter and teacher, as well as president of Hawaii Songwriters Association. Sibelius G7 is being used more and more by guitar and songwriting teachers, and Stan is no exception. Stan uses G7 to develop courseware for the songwriting courses he teaches at the McKinley Community School in http://www.stanrubens.com/.
Henry Kaleialoha Allen

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Upcoming Shows and Events

If we're in your neck of the woods, please drop by and see us. Here are the events we'll be attending in September and October:

 

Start	End	Event & Website	City, State	Booth
9/11			Milwaukee, WI	N/A
10/22	10/23	Manitoba Music Educators Association http://www.musiceducationonline.org	Winnipeg, Manitoba	Long & McQuade

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Sibelius user survey - Tech Support

Have you used the Sibelius Tech Support services in the past year or two? Would you mind sharing your experience and observations with us? We realize that our software is only useful if our users can install it and run it successfully. Tech Support plays a large and demanding role in that equation, and your feedback will help us meet that demand.

To take the Sibelius Tech Support Survey, please click here.

P.S. We realize we've been a bit survey-crazy these past few months, and it's likely that we'll continue to feature one every month in Gracenotes. We know how busy many of you are, and hope you won't feel obliged to respond to all of them. We do appreciate any and all efforts to communicate with us and we thank you for it.

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Hints & Tips

Each month, Robin Hodson (Eastern Region Manager for Sibelius, based in Baltimore) presents some quick hints on getting your engraving and notating work done with the minimum of fuss. You'll see we're really into shortcuts (i.e. keys you press on the computer keyboard that bypass the need for a mouse and menus).

This month: Music Scanning Tips and Adding Text to a Score

Last month we highlighted the basics of starting a score and using Sibelius shortcuts. This month, we focus on tips designed to help you make the most of our music scanning program, and guidance on adding text and markings in your Sibelius score. Neither is meant as an exhaustive guide, but we've tried to focus on the most common things our users ask and need to know. As usual, please read the complete documentation inside the Sibelius and PhotoScore user guides for full details.

Download the printable PDF versions of Robin's useful guides, click here

About Robin Hodson

Robin is Sibelius' longest serving member of staff and has been training folks on both sides of the Atlantic since 1996 - and we're talking pre-Windows and Mac days, when Sibelius ran on British Acorn computers!

As is the case with the vast majority of Sibelius employees, Robin is an accomplished musician. You can check out and download his free choral music (using our free Scorch web browser plug-in) by visiting http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/robinhodson

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Get Free Sibelius 3 Trial Software

If you don't have Sibelius 3, we'd strongly encourage you to Download a Free Trial Version by clicking here. Once you DO have it, be sure to download Robin's Hints and Tips every month. They'll get you up and running and ensure you spend more time working on your music and less time working on your computer skills.