June 2024 News
Rehearing the Lee High School Band before the premiere of Theron's Lullaby
My Lamentation for String Orchestra, which won 1st prize in the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra's Third International Composition Competition in Vilnius, Lithuania last year, received a second performance by the orchestra in March. It also received a performance by the Jasper High School Orchestra at the Texas state assessment festival on "Leap Day" (Feb. 29) in Plano, TX, plus it it scheduled to be performed by the amazing professional chamber orchestra ROCO in April next year at Rice University in Houston, TX!
In March, I travelled to Muncie, Indiana where the Ball State Symphony Orchestra premiered "Lithium," the third movement from my Symphony No. 2 "Metallic," at the Ball State University Festival of New Music.
After having the first movement "Titanium and Mercury" read by the American Composers Orchestra in March 2020, and the second movement "Iridium" performed by the Tonkunstler Orchestra (with me conducting!) in Sept. 2022, I now have had the entire symphony read/performed and can finally share a cobbled-together live recording of the entire symphony which I'm quite proud of as I wrote this 20-minute work initially with no prospects for having it performed!
Just over a decade ago, the amazing saxophonist Allison Adams commissioned me (or more correctly, her husband did as a gift to her!) to write a new piece for tenor saxophone and piano. The result was Rumination and Manifestation, which she premiered back in 2014, and now she has recorded on her just released album "Flames Will Grow" on Albany Records. She, and pianist Andrea Lodge, did an amazing job with it! It's now out on all streaming platforms and as a CD as well, have a listen!
I'm deep into the process of composing my Requiem for Animals which I'm writing for the Brattleboro Music Center and the Brattleboro Concert Choir for a premiere in spring 2025. In addition to receiving a grant from the Eric Stokes Fund, "Earth's Best in Tune" for the commission, I also was recently awarded another grant for the project, this one from the Culture and Animals Foundation! I've composed about half the requiem so far and I'm very excited about how it is shaping up and I can't wait to finish it and share it with you all next year!
On July 11 at 7pm EDT, I'll be giving a presentation online via Zoom for Intentional Hiking about my process of hiking and composing my Appalachian Trail Symphony: New England. The event is free, although registration is required and donations (which will be split between myself, Intentional Hiking, and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy) are encouraged. I hope you'll join me!
In February, I had a wonderful time visiting Lee High School in Massachusetts where I conducted their band in the premiere of Theron's Lullaby which they commissioned. I loved working with the students and in addition to rehearsing my piece I gave them some feedback on their own collaborative composition project that they were working on. I hope to have more opportunities like this to be a guest conductor in the future, especially working with students in performing my works.
I was honored to find out that Ukrainian clarinetist Pavlo Boiko will be performing both my Sonata for Clarinet and Piano and my Duo for Clarinet and Cello on a recital of all American music in Kiev on July 4th (very fittingly). Even in a country at war and under siege, creating and listening to music is still important, and I'm honored that they are including mine on this concert.