This afternoon, we’ll tech “Mass” as Juilliard. The rehearsals have been going well — at least as far as the playing goes. The problem last week was with the sound. The percussionists are on stage behind a scrim behind the dancers. Behind the musicians is another curtain. Behind that curtain: empty stage. Above the musicians: fly space.

As you might guess, it sounded awful. There was no definition in any of the drums. Everything was muted and mushy. The loud parts never got loud enough, and even worse, the quiet parts of the piece were so quiet that you couldn’t hear them over the sounds of the dancers. You could see that they were playing, but you couldn’t hear a note.

I “requested” that we amplify the musicians. Juilliard is against playing with amplified musicians, and I can respect that, but in this case, the piece just wasn’t working acoustically. The dance division had to get special permission from the office of Juilliard’s president, and then they had to determine if they could find the money to rent microphones and hire a sound technician to work during the performances. Long story short, everybody agreed that the piece needed to be amplified, and the dance division agreed to the rather obscene cost of doing so. That’s a huge relief, as I was terribly stressed about it last week.

It appears that my father will be driving from Ohio to NYC for this weekend’s performance. I haven’t seen him in quite a while, and it’ll be nice to have him there.

Gotta run — my coffee is ready!

The Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra’s performance of “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” on Halloween was just great. In fact, the whole residency week went extremely well. They kept me busy without killing me, and I had a blast. Thank you to everybody at SYSO! I can’t wait to come back in March!

Tomorrow night is the first on-stage rehearsal of Robert’s piece at Juilliard — including musicians. I’m excited, but a little nervous. I don’t know why this piece makes me nervous. I’m excited about it, but it’s weird having only attending one rehearsal so far throughout the process. I’m usually quite a mother hen (or something), and I’m not used to being so out of the loop. With all of the travel I’ve been doing, I haven’t had much choice.

I’ve been e-mailing back-and-forth with Richard Clary, the conductor of the wind ensemble at Florida State University. It sounds like he really gets “Redline Tango,” and I wish I could be there for his performance in a few weeks.

I’d write more, but I’m feeling pretty down today. Sometimes, things just don’t go the way they should.

I’m writing this from Victrola, a seemingly hip coffee shop in the Capital Hill neighborhood of Seattle. For the first time since I left NY, I’m actually using WiFi! Oh, the luxury. Dial-up = misery.

I’m wondering if it looks pretentious to the natives to see somebody writing a blog entry in a coffee shop, or if this is what people do here. Looking around, I suspect the people here, if they notice me at all, are only noticing that I’m not dressed like them. I’m a bit too old and non-pierced to be here. Now I know how Newman feels in his neighborhood on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Today has been a pretty easy day. Huw Edwards, the SYSO Music Director, picked me up for a nice lunch and then drove me to my radio interview with Megan Suckys on KUOW, the NPR affiliate in Seattle. Megan gave a great interview, and really put me at ease. I was nervous about doing a 20-minute, live interview, but she made it a real pleasure. We also managed to squeeze three excerpts of my music into the interview, marking the radio debut of “Redline Tango” and “Wrong-Mountain Stomp.”

Tomorrow morning is the final rehearsal with the youth symphony. After that, I think I’ll look around downtown Seattle a little before I head to a discussion at the Seattle Conservatory of Music. A lot of the people attending the discussion are members of the youth symphony, and it’ll be fun to take questions from them and play a little music for them.

Oh good — I just spotted somebody at the coffee shop who is at least 40. I feel better now. Of course, his arms are completely tattooed — but at least he has gray hair.