Behind the Music
Music blog
A Florida Story – premieres April 23 in Melbourne, April 24 in Vero Beach as part of “Coast to Coast”
Concert Takes Audience ‘Coast to Coast’ Space Coast Symphony program features Copland, Gershwin, World Premieres (EAU GALLIE / VERO BEACH, FL) APRIL 2022 – The Space Coast Symphony Orchestra will travel ‘Coast to Coast’ in a program that celebrates Vero Beach, the…
A FLORIDA STORY
Premiere is April 23 in Melbourne, April 24 in Vero Beach I met Sean Sexton at a reading of his poetry and immediately wanted to set some of it to music. Sean is many things – a cattle rancher, Vero…
A Florida Story performances just one month away – meet Aaron Collins and the SCSO
Lorraine and I moved to Vero Beach in March of 2015. We soon came to love the city. Founded in 1919, its centennial was scheduled for 2019, and I thought about writing a piece to celebrate those 100 years. It…
The Energies of Adam – four
The fourth movement displayed Adam’s determination to succeed on his own terms: Self-Possessed https://www.dropbox.com/s/bhidvi127kzgg2e/Energies%20IV%20NewOld.wav?dl=0 Here is a recent photo of the child, now man, who inspired the piece. He’s caught listening to a student’s question during one of his classes.
The Energies of Adam – three
Additional performances of the work were made possible through the New/Old Quartet Foundation and were jointly supported by a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. These performances took place on the Community…
The Energies of Adam (two)
Lydia Gatling Bardin was the pianist for the New/Old Quartet. While simultaneously teaching and finishing her Doctoral coursework at the University of Iowa, Mrs. Bardin was offered a job as a Visiting Artist in the NC community college system and…
The Energies f Adam – 1984 (one)
In the early 1980s I joined the NC Music Teachers National Association (NCMTA). In 1984 NCMTA commissioned me as Composer of the Year, with the opportunity to premiere the work at Queens College in Charlotte in October, 1984, during their…
DISRAELI’S VENICE – 1984
The piece took its inspiration from reading John Lawson Stoddard’s lectures on Venice. Stoddard (1850-1931) was an American writer, hymn writer and lecturer who gained popularity through his travelogues. Oddly, I had a copy of the lectures in books I…
FULL FATHOM FIVE – 1983
This is a piece for solo percussionist using 22 traditional and non-traditional instruments. It was commissioned by Mark Shelton, then a Visiting Artist at Coastal Carolina Community College. The formal premiere took place in September, 1983, at the Community Arts…
INNER VARIABLES FOR FLUTE COLLECTIVE
“The Morning of Christ’s Nativity” (1976) was a commission by Maurice Casey for the Ohio State University Chorale. However, I began my teaching career at Coastal Carolina Community College rather suddenly (on two-days’ notice) in December, 1976, without leaving notice…