The Return...

Hello, blog!

After another short hiatus, I am back in action motivated in particular by two very exciting premieres that occurred within the last two months.  As I alluded to in a previous post, I have had the good fortune this year to write a full-scale orchestral/choral work for the Carnegie Mellon Holiday Concert which was conducted by Robert Page on Friday, December 5 and broadcast live on WQED and WQEJ.  Dr. Page was featured on the radio in an interview with Stephen Baum and paid me some very kind compliments, referring to our past collaborations on "Katsu!" and "Krljavestica!" (my works always seem to end up with exclamation points in the title...) and the exciting premiere of "Hodie Christus natus est".  The combined choirs (Concert Choir and Repertory Chorus) did a fine job in preparing my "non-polarized" melodies and counterpoints (Page's terminology) and the orchestra really brought it together in a superb performance that I hope will not be the last!  Aesthetically, the work is my own, but falls on the accessible side of the fence as I  had to cater somewhat to the Christmas concert crowd.  That said, I managed to give a few people a start (most of the first four rows nearly leapt out of their seats) with some powerful bass drum action.  As always, I tried to instill a sense of mystery and awe by using greatly contrasting sonorities and drawing very heavily from Renaissance and Medieval sources to pay homage to the antiquity of the text and the "feeling" of Christmas as per the text.  The work was very well received and I am really looking forward to next year when the Heinz Chapel Choir plans to unveil my "Coptic Hymn", a work for a cappella chorus with four soprano soli hidden in the loft.  

You can watch the performance by clicking here and navigating to "past events" and "holiday concert".  The password to watch the video is "xmas" and my work is the fifth piece on the program (following the Corelli Christmas Concerto).

November 15 saw the premiere of my work "Dialogues" which was composed to illustrate my findings after my journey this summer in Eastern Europe.  Before the performance I made a surprise dedication to Marilyn and Ray Gindroz, my benefactors for last summer's trip and who have both become my dear friends.  Richard Cowan, the new bass/baritone voice teacher at CMU was my narrator and did a wonderful job bringing my diary entries to life against a fairly abstract backdrop of sounds from the flute, bass clarinet, violin, cello, celesta, piano and percussion.  This work was also very well received and we will be coordinating a repeat performance at the Gindroz Foundation fund raiser this year at the art space in Regent Square, an outlying neighborhood in Pittsburgh.

As for the rest, I am dedicating next semester to choral and vocal music, looking to compile a book of music for a cappella choir to record and send out to my buddies in the choral world.  I have begun work on my Missa Occulta, a large scale work for pipe organ, 2 violins, bass, trumpet, horn, trombone, flute, clarinet, bassoon, percussion and small chamber choir that I hope to perform in Heinz Chapel possibly in the late spring.  I also plan to compose a one-act chamber opera and whatever else may happen my way.  More later!