When I moved to the Austin area in June, I took a day job at a hotel to smooth over the transition. I think that was a good call. It made it easier to settle in, especially because I didn't have many connections to the area. But I gave my notice at the beginning of August, and left the job at the end of the month. I also moved from Round Rock to Austin.

Now that I've left the day job, I'm ramping my music work. I'm now employed by Ballet Austin, where I'm playing the piano for classes. I improvise music to help students work through their dance exercises. I'm still teaching at Premier Music Academy in Round Rock, and I've begun teaching at the Armstrong Community Music School. I'm looking for more students at both schools.

I'm also producing musical audio for content creators. I finished a soundtrack for a short animation last month, and I'm beginning another one today. As potential clients reach out, this kind of work comes and goes. In general I want as many of these opportunities as possible. Making music for movies and games is what I dreamed of doing when I was a kid. It's creative and fulfilling, and it's related to storytelling, which is close to my heart. If you're watching this and you are a content creator--on YouTube, a podcast, game development, whatever--I'd like to help you tell your story. It's difficult to break into this industry, but I'm trying. I'm eager to improve, and I'm committed to providing a professional service.

This past month, I updated a couple things for subscribers to my website (www.bentibbetts.net). I spent a lot of time on a new track for the audio store, called "El Baile de los Muertos" ("the dance of the dead"). It's a creepy, exciting dance for violin, piano, bass, and drum set. I released sheet music for my piano four-hands arrangement of Willie Nelson's song "On The Road Again", and I released a short album of background solo piano music called "Reveries". A subscription to my website is $4 a month. Subscribers have access to a library of exclusive content including sheet music and royalty-free audio. This month, I'm thinking of making "work logs" too, little films in which I talk about writing music and show my work flow.

Later this month I'll be performing a piano four-hands concert with the local pianist Graham Yates, of the North Austin Piano Studio (https://www.northaustinpiano.com/). If you're in town, please stop by. It's at Premier Music Academy in Round Rock, on September 25 at 2pm. It will be a small free concert in which we play some Gershwin and Stravinsky, as well as the just-released arrangement of "On The Road Again".

In September, I hope to get more students, maybe as many as twenty. I also hope to find more freelance work, and produce more content for the subscribers on my website.

And that's about it. As always, thank you very much for your interest. Be well.

Ben