SHORT STORIES

Imagine that five people walk into a room and sit around a circular table expectantly. One by one they begin to speak, not with their voices, but with the instruments each person has brought with them. First the clarinet is heard, then the flute followed by the horn, then the oboe and finally the bassoon. They each vie for attention, seemingly attempting to agree on how they are to proceed. Finally they decide that each performer will tell a story with the others commenting or embellishing or even taking over the story. This is the dream that I had which inspired Short Stories.
Commissioned by The Aspen Wind Quintet and funded by Chamber Music America with funds from The Pew Charitable Trusts, Short Stories was written in 1994 and subsequently premiered that summer by The Aspen Wind Quintet at the Chautauqua Institute in New York.
The work is comprised of six movements with movements four, five and six played attacca. Each movement has an evocative title which hints at the story being told or at the storytellers themselves. Wildly divergent, Short Stories moves from mysterious to boisterous, from playful to painful, and climaxes with a vibrant, joyous dance.

STILL

Still for Brass Quintet was commissioned by and written for the Gaudete Brass Quintet. The premiere occurred on October 25, 2013, during the live broadcast of Backstage Pass hosted by Julia Figueras at the NPR Station WXXI in Rochester, New York. The intent of the work is simple: aurally depict the first stages of meditation with the quieting of the mind followed by timeless restfulness. Feel free to close your eyes, allow your breathing to become slower, and let your thoughts come and go at will.

CHICAGO MOVES

I wrote Chicago Moves for Gaudete Brass in 2011. The piece is in four movements, each of which showcases an aspect of life in Chicago, represented by a place or landmark. The piece is a melange of third stream (i.e., between classical and jazz) style melodies overlaid onto an almost minimalist groove that is passed between the instruments. It makes extensive use of mutes, flügelhorns, and interconnected lines to produce colors more like those of a string quartet or vocal choir than those typically associated with brass instruments. The work was commissioned for Gaudete Brass by Giddings and Webster Mouthpieces, The Venzon Family, Earl and Judy Baxtresser, and the Chicago Modern Brass Project.