ECHOS was commissioned by the ECHO Chamber Orchestra to be premiered in their 2020-2021 season. The composition ECHOS is not simply named after the beloved orchestra for which it was composed. It refers to how the opening melodic lines return again and again in an almost improvisatory fashion, ‘echoing’ one another in various permutations. While the season for its initial performance was cancelled due to Covid, the work on this piece was not at all. In fact, in January 2020 the orchestra’s musicians worked with me in doing live webinar workshops on the work in progress. We invited the Zoom audience to purvey the inner workings of how a piece is composed, while also sharing about the qualities of the instruments in ECHO. (This is a technical feat that seems Zoom commonplace today but, in January 2020, was still avant guard.)

I wish to say thanks to all the ECHO players who participated in those web workshops, for their input was invaluable. Special gratitude goes to percussionist Christian Foster Howes for his wisdom in my final edits. I can also never thank enough composer Dan Becker, for his continued musical counsel and support. Finally, this piece is dedicated in loving memory to Richard Taruskin, the titan musicologist who unexpectedly passed away in 2022. I’m so grateful for all the insights and comments he gave me about this piece as I finished it. He was a brilliant, acerbic, thoughtful, kind, and sometimes insufferable man. He was my mentor, my former professor, and my dearest friend. You are deeply missed, sir.

ECHOS

ODE TO GREEN DRAGONS is another fun addition to our educational piano works.

ODE TO GREEN DRAGONS

RED PIANO is the inaugural work of our Beginner Clarinet Music series - continuing of our commitment to diversity in Educational Music for students of all ages.

"RED PIANO was written for Zev Wasserman, a talented musician who loves quirky things. Zev found a Red Piano in the airport in Paris, France. He liked it so musch he played my music on it! This work is for Zev, for his love of playing the clarinet. I hope many others do, too, through this piece." - BLR

RED PIANO

Starry Things&nbsp;was originally commissioned by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as part of their “CONSERVATORY IN THE SCHOOLS” program.&nbsp;

The piece gets its title from two sources. First, the music is based on the opening from “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” The second source is the name of the school for which the work was especially written, Starr King Elementary School.

Special thanks goes to Emily Bowman, who inspired me to arranged this piece for orchestra.

For Beginning String Orchestra
Commissioned by San Francisco Conservatory of Music; Premiered May 2002 - San Francisco, CA

STARRY THINGS

SARA’S GRACE&nbsp;takes from two rich traditions in American music: the boogie-woogie style that predated jazz, and the spiritual hymn. Growing up in the South, both of these languages became part of my music ‘family-tree’.

The work makes an attempt to fuse the joy of both musical styles through an infusion of boogie woogie to elements of “Amazing Grace.” The vocal text comes entirely from the first verse of “Amazing Grace”. However, the words have been reordered, giving a different context that still celebrates the sacredness of the song.

This work is dedicated to the memory of Sara Lewis, a visual artist who loved to play with the context of found objects in her work. Special thanks goes to David Alan Miller of the Dogs of Desire for the opportunity to write this piece as part of Common Sense Composers’ Collective 6th Collaboration Project.

Approx. Duration: 7'

For Amplified Chamber Orchestra and Two Sopranos
Commissioned by the Albany Symphony in collaboration with Common Sense

SARA'S GRACE

Have you ever had to keep a secret, a secret so strong, so unsettling, that it kept you up at night? This story explores those feelings through a montage of recorded phrases, taken from four interviews of four women speaking about their innocuous childhood secrets. However, the montage creates a quite different result of their words, the story of a secret that is much darker, much scarier, much more true of what can happen to little girls when they are alone, and unaware.....Hopefully SECRET gives one an avenue to explore their own secrets, regardless of the circumstances around them.” -Belinda Reynolds



Written for Sound File, Soprano, Soprano Recorder, Violin, Vibraphone, and Marimba. Commissioned by ELEKTRA.

Belinda Reynolds: Secret

SECRET

For Violin and Piano
Arrangement commissioned by BARBWIRE

SHARED

SHARKS IN THE SKY is another fun addition to our educational piano works.

SHARKS IN THE SKY

SOLACE was commissioned by American Baroque in 1998 and completed in 1999/2000. The work gets its title from the way the opening material returns again in differing yet easily recognizable fashions, thus setting a tone of comfort amidst confusion. Many of the articulations and dynamics are structured by the players themselves, reminiscent of the stylistic practice of baroque instruments. Special thanks goes to Elizabeth Blumenstock, Gonzolo Ruiz, Kathy Shao, Stephen Schultz, and Roy Whelden, for which this piece is especially written.

For Baroque Flute, Baroque Oboe, Viola da gamba, and Harpsichord
Commissioned by American Baroque;
Premiered February 2000 - Holy Names College

Approx. Duration: 9'

COVER

SOLACE

For Erhu, Pipa, Ruan, and Wind Ensemble
Commissioned by Melody of China and Citywinds;
Premiered February, 2005 -- San Francisco, CA

SPIRALS

BRIDGES was commissioned by the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and funded by the San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Grants Fund. I titled the work to reflect both how the piece is constructed and under the circumstances it was conceived. First, BRIDGES refers to how the opening melody is interspersed throughout the different instruments, each passing it to one another. This process continues throughout the work as I devise canons of all sorts to restate the material. The result is a feeling of the music bridging in upon itself both harmonically and melodically. The other use of BRIDGES refers to the three bridges of the Bay Area and how the talented musicians of the SFCO cross these countless times during their day as they go from one rehearsal/performance to another. Their dedication, stamina, and high artistry are an inspiration to us all in the music community.

For Chamber Orchestra
Commissioned by San Francisco Chamber Orchestra;
Dedicated to Ben Simon&nbsp;

ECHOS

Belinda Reynolds Music

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