Jacket for the U.S. Navy Band “Music for Prague 1968” DVD

In 2014, I was asked to help produce, with Michael Schmitz, a U.S. Navy Band educational DVD about Karel Husa’s masterpiece, Music for Prague 1968. This was a huge project that was envisioned by the leader of the Navy Band at the time, Capt. Brian Walden. There were many things to hunt down and do for the project. Here are some of the things I did:

• Researched and analyzed Karel Husa’s Music for Prague 1968 for blue-ribbon-panel-discussion questions related to the history, symbology and conducting challenges.
• Worked with the head librarian of the Husa archives in Ithaca, NY, to obtain high-quality images of the working manuscript of the score
• Obtained photos and recordings of Czech birds; identified appropriate public domain historic video material related to the “Prague Spring”
• Contacted Karel Husa to check on availability for videotaping (this was a big privilege for me to talk to Mr. Husa!)
• Located photos, recordings and other documents related to Mr. Husa’s appearance with the Navy Band in 1991
• Supervised digitization of VCR tapes of 1991 rehearsal video footage
• Obtained permissions for inclusion of recorded material and images of score from publisher
• Reviewed similar project by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from 1975 to get ideas and insure that new Navy Band project is not a duplicate
• Wrote liner notes for DVD project

What a privilege it was to work on this!!