Journey for violin and piano now available on MusicaNeo

Journey started out as a song with words — and the original poem was about a slave mother's harsh reality as she traveled on a slave boat from Africa. Due to a misunderstanding with the poet, permission to set the poem was withdrawn. I first reworked the song as a solo for saxophone with piano - and later created a new version for violin and piano. Violinist Tarn Travers and pianist Amanda Hopson premiered the new arrangement on November 8, 2018 on the Faculty Select Series at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. 

PDFs are available through my MusicaNeo site and can be purchased by clicking here. 

Live stream of Premiere of "The Ocean of Eternity" — February 9, 2019, National Opera Center, 7:30 pm ET

The Ocean of Eternity, my new song cycle for soprano, soprano saxophone and piano, will premiere February 9, 2019 at 7:30 pm at the National Opera Center in New York City.

To watch the live stream, please click here.

The piece was commissioned by soprano Yungee Rhie, saxophonist Michael Couper and pianist ChoEun Lee, and features the beautiful poetry of the late Sri Lankan poet Anne Ranasinghe. To purchase tickets, please click here. 

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Grant Park Music Festival Chorus Commission - premiering July 18 and 22, 2019

I am thrilled to announce that I have been commissioned to write an a cappella chorus piece for The Grant Park Musical Festival Chorus with director Christopher Bell. The work will premiere July 18,2019 at the Columbus Park Refectory and will be repeated on July 22 at the South Shore Cultural Center in Chicago, IL.

The commission celebrates the 20th anniversary of Grant Park's artistic director and conductor Carlos Kalmar, and I chose to set the exquisite poem "Hands," by American poet Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962).

For more information, please click here, or here

Journey for alto saxophone and piano - now available on MusicaNeo

Journey started out as a song. Due to a misunderstanding with the poet, permission to set the poem was withdrawn. I then reworked the song as a solo for saxophone and piano. The poem was about a slave mother's harsh reality as she traveled on a slave boat from Africa, so I felt the timbre of the saxophone perfectly captured the sorrow of the original words.

The piece was recently recorded by saxophonist Gary Louie and pianist Kirsten Taylor, and will be part of my upcoming double CD set, to be released on Naxos in December of 2019.

PDFs are available through my page on MusicaNeo. Hard copies are sold and distributed through Glendower Jones at Classical Vocal Reprints. 

Lullaby for alto saxophone and piano - now available on MusicaNeo

Lullaby, a short, sweet piece that I composed in 2000 for saxophonist Gary Louie and pianist Kirsten Taylor, is now availabe for sale here. 

Gary and Kirsten recently recorded this work for me. It will be on my upcoming double CD from Naxos, which has a tentative release date of December 2019.