“For God and Country” was written in honor of Lt. Aloysius Schmitt for the Loras
College Wind Ensembles, Glenn Pohland, director. The Catholic chaplain and
Columbia College (now Loras College) graduate gave his life helping twelve of his
shipmates exit a porthole on the side of the U.S.S. Oklahoma as it took enemy
torpedo fire, rolled over and finally faltered on the morning of December 7, 1941.
Schmitt was posthumously awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal and the
Silver Star. In 1943, the Oklahoma was righted and salvaged. Navy personnel
recovered remains of the crew that could not be identified and eventually buried
them at two cemeteries in Hawaii. Due to advances in technology, specifically
DNA testing, the POW/MIA Accounting Agency exhumed those remains. In June
2015, the remains of Lt Schmitt were identified. On October 3, 2016 the remains
were placed in a casket, returned to Iowa where he was finally laid to rest in Christ
the King Chapel on the Loras College Campus.

For God and Country

I. Fleeting -4:22
II. Mysteriously Searching 4:23-end

Fleeting (2008) for clarinet violin, cello and piano

ayudame (2004) for cello

Deadly Canyons, Wild Orcas, Deathly Sea Cliff

Marcus DeJesus performing "Beatriz" for Solo Guitar

Beatriz

Recording by Chris McKiggan ("Chris the Pianist"). The term “phenomenon” has come to mean, in our celebrity-driven world, a star of popular culture.  PHENOMENON pits the two worlds of 21st century concert piano music and 20th century gut-level boogie woogie against each other in the body of the same pianist.  Perhaps being educated initially on the streets and then attending a prestigious music school, the performer, some twenty years later, arrives at an aesthetic midlife crisis.  Or perhaps this is just the composer, projecting. 

Phenomenon for Piano Solo

Clarke University Choir - St Columbkille Catholic Church - July 1, 2016

Dunker:  Te Deum (Clarke University Choir, LaDonna Manternach, sop; Jeremy Mims, cond)

"Blue Marble: A Symphony for Wind Ensemble" was written in 2015-2016 and premiered 19 April 2016 by the University of Tennessee at Martin Wind Ensemble under the direction of John Oelrich.

More information can be found here: http://www.derekmjenkins.com/blue-marble

"Blue Marble: A Symphony for Wind Ensemble"

A bitter wind blows though our lives: our humanity is increasingly being taken from us.  We work more hours than ever before, and are less satisfied.  The people who would control our lives seek to do so only for their own benefit.  Altruism and compassion are rapidly disappearing, teaching and learning are being replaced by manipulation and marketing. Lies go unquestioned and truths are attacked.  Independent thought is discouraged in favor of dogma and catch-phrases.  Diversity and originality are publicly praised but not valued; conformity is king.  Quantity reigns supreme over quality.  We are being turned not into machines—which would at least require an effort to replace—but into leaves of a diseased tree whose individual lives and deaths seem of no consequence whatsoever.   Only through a difficult but vital appraisal of our true situation and our real needs can we fight the bitter wind which otherwise promises catastrophe.

Bitter Wind was originally commissioned by Kiyonori Sokabe for his newly created Zephyros trumpet—a trumpet with both valves and a trombone-like slide. The version in this recording is a new revision--significantly rewritten for standard trumpet in C.

Bitter Wind for trumpet and piano

Written for the University of Tulsa Symphony Orchestra. Conducted by Drew Crane.

This piece aims to take simple musical ideas and develop them and their interrelations.

For God and Country

Amy Dunker

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