Name: Hard To Argue (2015) for saxophone quartet by Catherine Likhuta
Duration: 11 min 11 s
Description: Studio recording by Barega Saxophone Quartet (Brisbane, Australia)

Recording of the world premiere of Planet B (2021) for wind ensemble.
Performed by Rachel Howley and Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University Wind Orchestra on 30 April, 2021.
Concert: Winds of Change
Venue: Conservatorium Theatre (Brisbane, QLD, Australia)

Winds of Change April 30th 2021

Planet B (world premiere)

GUTTERSNIPE (1994)
for large symphonic wind ensemble
by Michael Schelle

Commissioned by the 
Capital University (OH) Conservatory of Music 
for NOW Festival 1995
.
Michael Schelle's website: http://schellemusic.com/1.html

GUTTERSNIPE (1994) for wind ensemble

Through Healers' Eyes-Cathy Likhuta (Slippery Rock University Wind Ensemble)

"Urban Secrets" is the third and final movement of Vivid Dreams, concerto for low horn and wind band (also available in the version for low horn and piano, commissioned by Denise Tryon). This movement is a musical depiction of a brisk walk through hidden alleys of a busy city (such as New York, Chicago or Melbourne). There is a moment in this movement where, amongst all the surrounding busyness, one stops for a minute to peek through a window of a dance studio, where couples are dancing waltz. Then it is back to the noisy city life.
Performers:
Adam Unsworth, horn soloist
Courtney Snyder, conductor
University of Michigan concert band
December 5, 2022
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Sheet music available at: http://www.catherinelikhuta.com/Large.htm

Urban Secrets (movement 3 from Vivid Dreams Concerto)

"Cradle in the Forest" is the first movement of Vivid Dreams, concerto for low horn and wind band (also available in the version for low horn and piano, commissioned by Denise Tryon). It opens with the solo horn prologue, as if inviting the audience to listen to the stories about to
be told. Then it turns into a creepy lullaby-gone-wrong, with some unexpected turns.
Performers:
Adam Unsworth, horn soloist
Courtney Snyder, conductor
University of Michigan concert band
December 5, 2022
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Sheet music available at: http://www.catherinelikhuta.com/Large.htm

Cradle In The Forest (movement 1 from Vivid Dreams Concerto)

Recording from the world premiere: April 21, 2023
Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra
Professor Peter Morris, conductor
QCGU, Brisbane, Australia
Order music: https://www.catherinelikhuta.com/Large.htm
Program notes: 
Fully Free was commissioned by the Queensland Eye Institute as part of Last Seen—a project that centred on ten people with severe vision impairments. Each of these people was matched with a visual artist and a composer. They told us about their last, or their most cherished, visual memory. The visual artists created paintings based on these stories, while the composers wrote three-minute pieces. Fully Free is inspired by the last visual memory of Santiago (Santi) Velasquez.

Currently in his late twenties, Santi has glaucoma, sclerocornea and microphthalmia. He has roughly two percent vision in his right eye and no vision in his left. He can distinguish colours and shapes as well as objects that are very large within a certain distance from him and in perfect lighting. Santi was born with vision loss. He reads braille and uses a guide dog in his daily life. One of his main missions is to develop software to help visually impaired people find their way around. A range of screen reading programs on his Mac help him code. His output includes an app that makes it possible for people like him to use public transport in Brisbane.

Santi saw his last image when he was nine years old, biking with friends in his native Colombia. He remembers the sounds of them laughing and roaming carefree, with no one paying attention to his impairment. At that time, his vision was at about seven percent, enough for him to cycle by himself. Today he uses a tandem bike. He explains: “The bike is my last seen image. It was my last time to be fully free as I didn’t have to walk slowly to check out the surroundings as I do now. Before nine years old, I could bike relatively quickly as I could see people (or rather movement) approaching me. I could feel the wind and feel the bike and the road and not worry about having insufficient vision. I wasn’t tied to a primary orientation mobility aid (such as a guide dog or white cane) or limited to walking slowly.”

When I read Santi’s story, the phrase “fully free” jumped at me immediately. I come up with many of my compositional ideas on bike rides, and it was a huge relief for me to find out that Santi could still ride on a tandem. When we met ahead of my writing the piece, he asked me why the orchestral musicians always had to be seated the same way (strings at the front, percussion at the back, etc.). I decided to approach the orchestration of this piece with that question in mind: not necessarily to answer it but to have a three-dimensional approach to the orchestra when it came to solos. One can clearly hear a trombone solo, then a piccolo, then a trumpet and so on; thus, a visually impaired person can feel where the sounds of those instruments come from.
A sentimental little time capsule, the piece has a light Latin-American feel to it, as an homage to the time and place in Santi’s life when he last felt fully free.

Fully Free

Spotlights

Sure-fire: 2. Lament in the Ashes

Sure-fire: 1. Sure-fire

Studio recording by Barega Saxophone Quartet (Brisbane, Australia)

Hard To Argue (2015) for saxophone quartet

This is a wonderful re-working of Lindsay Vickery's 'exotic' work- one of his best!

Mix't Trio - Home By 11 - 08 - Web Of Indra

O rose of May, performed by the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Wind Symphony, conducted by Alex Kaminsky at the 2018 Midwest Clinic in Chicago, Illinois.

Read the score here: https://harrisonjcollins.squarespace.com/o-rose-of-may

O rose of May is a musical response to Hamlet, the world famous and deeply influential play by William Shakespeare. The work focuses on the character arc of Ophelia, Hamlet’s would-be love interest, and her internal struggle amongst the external conflict of the play. Represented by a solo clarinetist, Ophelia is depicted as singing a solitary, peaceful song in the opening of the work. After this introduction, an agitated melody takes over, representative of the conflict between the characters of the play. Ophelia’s song reappears - but every time it is more and more twisted. A brief respite suggests relief from the conflict, but the song is unable to begin again. It bends to the will of the conflict, the voices of the surrounding characters overpower her, and as Ophelia descends into madness, her song becomes a hysterical celebration. The final bars are a wild chromatic descent into the last note of the work- a reflection on Ophelia’s final moments, falling from her tree branch into the brook in which she drowns.

Enjoy the music!

Copyright Harrison J. Collins 2018

Hard To Argue (2015) for saxophone quartet

Catherine Likhuta

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