Duo Capriccio Premiere in South Dakota
10-15-18: Dr. Tammy Evans Yonce will present a faculty recital on Monday, October 22 at 7:30pm in Peterson Recital Hall on the campus of South Dakota State University. The program includes music by a number of living composers, including Duo Capriccio for flute and clarinet, my run at Paganini's twenty-fourth Caprice.
Christmas Suite in Painesville
10-15-18: The Lakeland Civic Orchestra will include my Christmas Suite in its holiday concert at Painesville United Methodist Church in Painesville, Ohio at 7:30pm on Monday, December 10. I composed this piece for them in 2014, and it includes settings of "Angels We Have Heard on High," "What Child is This?" and "O Come All Ye Faithful." I will be conducting.
Blue Streak Ensemble at the Bop Stop
10-15-18: The Blue Streak Ensemble, a new music ensemble led by Margaret Brouwer, has commissioned me to write a piece for Pierrot ensemble plus percussion, to be inspired by the 1969 fire on the Cuyahoga River that jump-started the environmental movement in the US. The premiere will take place on January 18, 2019 at 7:30pm at the Bop Stop in Cleveland's Ohio City Neighborhood.
I've been doing some fairly extensive research on the river, the industry around it, and the fire itself, as well as its impact as I prepare to write this piece, and I'm starting to transition to the putting down notes phase of the work. Hopefully, a title will present itself in the near future as well!
I've been doing some fairly extensive research on the river, the industry around it, and the fire itself, as well as its impact as I prepare to write this piece, and I'm starting to transition to the putting down notes phase of the work. Hopefully, a title will present itself in the near future as well!
My Uncle Was in Derry in Cleveland and Akron
10-15-18: I spent some time recently revising a work from 2010 that never had a premiere, My Uncle Was in Derry for flute, horn, and piano, inspired by a poem by my uncle, Robin Saunders, about his time serving in the US Navy in Derry, Ireland during The Troubles. The result is that the Chamber Music Society of Ohio will give two performances of the piece in February 2019: Sunday, February 10 at 3pm at Fairmount Presbyterian Church in Cleveland, Ohio on a free concert, and Sunday, February 17 as part of a ticketed event featuring the same program at the Steinway Piano Gallery in Boston Heights, Ohio. The second event includes dinner. More information here.
New Works
10-15-18: I'm writing a short trombone and piano piece for my private trombone student Trent Glass, who was dissatisfied with Vandercook's Trombone Gems. We'll include it on a February 2019 recital at the Fine Arts Association if all goes well.
I'm considering a choral setting of one of the psalms for the Cleveland Composers Guild collaboration with the Cleveland Chamber Choir.
I've also been discussing the possibility of a piece for clarinet and guitar with Erika Cikraji, a clarinetist from my Ohio State days who now lives in Cleveland.
I'm considering a choral setting of one of the psalms for the Cleveland Composers Guild collaboration with the Cleveland Chamber Choir.
I've also been discussing the possibility of a piece for clarinet and guitar with Erika Cikraji, a clarinetist from my Ohio State days who now lives in Cleveland.
On the horizon...
I'm also hoping to organize a local premiere for Place of the Sea Mountains, and to that end, I've recruited trumpeter Brian DePoy and violinist Natalia DePoy. This piece is about Willowick resident Robert Manry's solo crossing of the Atlantic in his 13.5-foot boat Tinkerbelle, so it's important that it have a local presence.
I've completed my solo piano piece Sisters in Stone, inspired by the statuary collection at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, which I visited on my trip there in February 2017. More details on my blog here. Dianna Anderson, who gave the premiers of my Starry Wanderers and my piano sonata has signed on for the premiere! More details to follow!
