I’m in the middle of the National Performing Arts Convention in Denver, along with thousands of others from every imaginable performing arts discipline.

Here are some highlights in stream-of-consciousness order.

Music in a Meeting
At the orientation session for composers, jointly run by folks from American Music Center, Meet the Composer and American Composers’ Forum, advice was issued on how to approach networking and how to make the most of the various events. But at the end there was a lovely impromptu performance by Indian artist Nirmala Rajasekar, who, perhaps sensing a lack of music in the room, volunteered to give us an impromptu performance. She asked the 100-or-so of us to sing a drone on F#, and sang a ravenously beautiful piece of music in the Carnatic style of South India.

Serendipity
Personally, I find the array of meetings and events here a little overwhelming, and I’m sure there’s a lot that I’ve missed, but the most fun and useful thing is running into old acquaintances and people I’ve only met via email and blogging. And then there are the potential professional contacts made in unexpected places like, say, the ticket line for Nixon in China.

Caucusing on a Massive Scale
A major component of NPAC is the “21st-Century Town Hall Meeting®” for the performing arts. I’m way too tired to describe it much here, but basically over several daily caucus sessions, we are developing an agenda for the performing arts community. It’s a fascinating process; please read more about it here. I can’t say I buy in 100% to the notion of setting an agenda, but it’s interesting, and the conversation at the table-level has been stimulating. Plus, owing to the structured-but-random way in which table assignments happen, there’s more of that serendipity around meeting people. Here’s a very poor photograph of what this looks like:

Performances
Tuesday night: Nixon in China. I wandered over on a whim to see if there were tickets, and I’m really glad I did. I’ve known this work intimately for 20 years, but only from the CD, so I’m glad to finally have the whole picture now. I still have problems with the libretto, but I admit that it “works” better than I’ve thought in recent years. I also admit that I love this infectious music as much as ever. The orchestra, led by Marin Alsop was phenomenal, and soprano Tracy Dahl stole the show as Madame Mao.

Wednesday night: The Colorado Symphony, performing Bernstein, Corigliano and Georgian composer Giya Kancheli. After Bernstein’s Candide Overture and Chichester Psalms, it was Corigliano’s Piano Concerto. To my surprise and delight, the soloist was my student in a musicianship class about eight years ago. Pianist Natasha Paremski got a well-deserved standing ovation for her performance of this incredibly difficult piece. Kancheli’s Styx, for chorus and orchestra was beautiful at times, but overall rather frustrating. There was some reference to traditional Georgian music, a fascination of mine, recently blogged about by Roger Bourland and by me a while back.

Denver
Water… must…. have…. water… oxygen….. need….. oxygen. I read warnings about dealing with the altitude here, and they’re true. I’ve been constantly dehydrated, tired and basically unwell the whole time, but other than that…

I’ve only seen this tiny corner, but Denver seems like a people-friendly, livable city. Kudos for the free hybrid bus up and down the 16th-street Mall (yes, that’s right: free) and the light rail network. Kudos for a terrific performing arts center as well.

One more day for me. We’ll see if there’s time for another update at some point.

So, I’m curious: who out there is also going as an individual? Composers, performers, directors, etc? I’d love to see some comments here about what your goals are and how you plan to pursue them. If you’ve been to these conferences in the past, how effective or useful was it?

I hope comments here can be of benefit to other readers, but if you prefer to keep it private, by all means write to me directly.

By the way, I think registration is still open. Here’s a partial list of service organizations that comprise this event.

• American Composers Forum
• American Music Center
• Association of Performing Arts Presenters
• Chamber Music America
• Chorus America
• Conductors Guild
• Dance/USA
• Early Music America
• International Society for the Performing Arts
• League of American Orchestras
• Meet The Composer
• North American Performing Arts Managers and Agents
• OPERA America
• Theatre Communications Group