what’s new…
15 March 2024
•revamp & update of newertunes.com.
•date TBD - premiere of Fantasías Latinos, for clarinet and marimba, to be premiered by FAC faculty Taylor Massey, clarinet, and Wesley Strasser, marimba. Completed 13 August 2023; details here.
• 11 March 2024 - completed Mind Your Modes, for intermediate level piano. Seven brief character pieces, each founded exclusively on one of the 7 diatonic modes. Designed to give the student a theoretical introduction too modes and to get a bit of their sound into their ear.
• 4 February 2024 - Trust Me, for tenor, violin, ‘cello, and percussion, on a text concerning the increasing threat of fascism by Keller Cushing Freeman, premiered by Virginia Tech ensemble October Sky. Video here.
earlier…
•19 October 2023 - States of Play, 8 brief movements for saxophone quartet, premiered by the Palmetto Saxophone Quartet at the Sigal Music Museum; video here.
•23 September 2023 - Satilla Shores, on a text by Frank Clark concerning the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, premiered in Arbery’s home town of Brunswick, GA. Score & details here. Also - premiered at Shandon Presbyterian in Columbia on 16 September and the Sigal Music Museum on 29 September 2023, the first time something of mine was on the same concert with my beloved teacher, Dr. Dick Goodwin. In all cases performed by Dr. Johnnie Felder, tenor, and Winnifred Goodwin, pianist. Video of Sigal performance here.
• 15 September 2023 - Step It Up, for ‘cello quartet and pre-recorded rock band sounds, performed by faculty of “Cellobration” ‘cello camp at Furman University.
•25 February 2023 - Fiddlins’, piano sonata in 5 mvts. on Appalachian fiddle tunes (details here), masterfully performed by San Francisco pianist Dr. Dale Tsang on a concert sponsored by Ensemble For These Times (E4TT). Video here.
• 29 June 2023 - Edgewise performs full-length concert at Sigal Music Museum. Go to NewerTube for links to video from the concert.
• 7 May 2023 - Overcoming (details here), in a transcription that replaces one violin with clarinet, performed in the Greenville Symphony Orchestra chamber concert series “Artists Up Close,”on a concert titled Courage. Video here.
•10 December 2022 - Incidental music for the children’s book Georgia Music performed by the GSO Woodwind Quintet on the GSO Lollipops concert. Video here.
•13 November 2022 - A concert of (almost) all new pieces at the Meeting House of the Acadia Community in Piedmont, SC. Performers included soprano Danielle Knox, tenor Grant Knox, saxophonist Connie Frigo, and the Carolina Brass Quintet. Song texts by Keller Cushing Freeman. Premieres of Hefty Trifles, for brass quintet (details here), Walking Kiawah, for soprano & piano (details here), and Whatever Was, for tenor and brass quintet (details here). Video here.
•7 May 2022 - Wide Open, for small orchestra and narrator (details here), premiered at the Peace Center by the the Young Artist Orchestra under the baton of Dr. Gary Robinson, with Fine Arts Center Artistic Director Vee Popat as narrator. Narration texts by Keller Cushing Freeman. Video here.
•April 2022 - Three to Tango, for piccolo, muted trumpet, and bari sax, premiered by students of the winds/brasses class the the Greenville Fine Arts Center. The most unusual combination I’ve ever written for, I believe. Details here.
• 31 March 2022 - my former student from 1988-89, my very first year at the FAC - Kelly Hall-Tompkins - has just reached another milestone with her ongoing humanitarian project, The Music Kitchen. The Music Kitchen stages classical music concerts with professional performers in NYC soup kitchens and homeless shelters, to the delight of the clientele. To celebrate 15 years of The Music Kitchen (100+ performances, 200+ musicians), Kelly collected 15 years of after-concert comments offered by homeless citizens and invited 15 composers to write songs for voice and strings using the comments as texts. A sold-out concert of the resulting compositions was staged in Carnegie Hall in March of 2022, and a multiple-award-winning short film, Face to Face: Forgotten Voices Heard, which tells the story of The Music Kitchen, is making the rounds of film festivals. A studio-recorded CD of the compositions from that concert has been released and is available for purchase. Included in the playlist is the song Save It in My Jewelry Box, by yours truly. The disc was released in March of 2023 and is available across all the major digital channels: Apple Music, Spotify, etc., and directly from the label: https://www.avie-records.com/releases/forgotten-voices-a-song-cycle-for-voices-and-strings/ A trailer about the CD is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E251yHmXtY Information about The Music Kitchen is here: http://www.musickitchennyc.org/ I am so proud of everything that Kelly has accomplished. In addition to the enormous success of the Music Kitchen and other humanitarian projects, Kelly is an in-demand soloist for important current violin concertos by Wynton Marsalis, Jeff Beale, and others. Way to go, Kelly!
• 25 March 2022 - “A Women’s Cabaret,” with soprano Danielle Knox, at the Sigal Music Museum Friday. Program featured my song cycle Voices from the Village, two other new songs with readings by the poets, and several favorites from Broadway and elsewhere.
• 11 March 2022 - He Loved His Red Fusquinha, for baritone, piano, and ‘cello streamed as part of the Sing Out Strong: Remembered Voices concert sponsored by White Snake Projects. Score & details here.
•20 January 2021 - Aesop’s Asses - Six brief pieces for ‘cello and narrator, each telling a fable attributed to Aesop that somehow includes a donkey, premiered online in an absolutely terrific video performed by the husband & wife team of Patty Raun (narrator) and Alan Weinstein (‘cello), with marvelous illustrations by Steven White. Video here, detail and score samples here.
•30 November 2021 - completed Canonica, for Woodwind Quintet. Five brief movements, each employing one or more canons throughout. Fantasia, March, Nocturne, Caccia, and Fantasia II & Fughetta. Details here. Still awaiting premiere.
•10 November 2021 - Three Dagstahs, for Viola Duet, declared winner of the Tallā Rouge Duo’s 2021 International Composers Competition. Details here.
•20 April 2020 - Present Affections, Sonata for Violin and Piano, premiered by violinist Zoe Kushubar and pianist Brennan Szafron at Converse College. Details here, video here.