This is beautiful, thank you so much for composing this and sharing this moving recording

I love this more each time I hear it. Achingly beautiful on many levels.

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

Live recording from the world premiere of Lesions (2017) for clarinet, French horn and cello.
Performers: Paul Dean (clarinet), Peter Luff (horn), Trish O'Brien (cello)
Conservatorium Theatre, Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University
November 12, 2017 

Program notes:
Lesions was commissioned by Paul Dean for Ensemble Q and was written for Paul Dean, Trish O’Brien and Peter Luff.
The term “lesions” refers to regions in organs and tissue which have suffered damage through injury or disease, such as a wound, ulcer, abscess or tumour. I first heard this term in 2004, when my mother (age 42 at that time) was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Multiple Sclerosis. While she had suffered from many disturbing, unexplainable and painful symptoms for sixteen years prior to that, the diagnosis of MS did not bring us any relief or closure.

Virtually every family has a loved one who is suffering or suffered from an incurable illness. While this is a very heavy subject, I believe it is definitely worth talking about, for two simple reasons:

1.	To show those who are affected that they are not alone and that there are millions of people in the world who are going through similar struggles;
2.	To remind those lucky few who have not been affected that we have to keep looking for cures every day.

Lesions is written in four parts that represent four most common stages of dealing with incurable illness: Sadness, Anxiety, Denial and finally Acceptance. The absence of a pause between the last two movements has an extra-musical meaning: though denial and acceptance are antithetical states of mind, many patients find themselves stuck between these two for a long time, sometimes for the rest of their lives. The new reality is too difficult to accept, yet the symptoms are just as difficult to deny.

On this photo: my mum holding me, about 2 years before MS came into our lives...

Lesions (2017) for clarinet, horn and cello

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

Performed by the University of British Columbia Wind Symphony
Conductor by Dr. Robert Taylor

Peace Dancer is inspired by the First Nations text of the same name by Roy Henry Vickers (Squamish Nation). In the words of the author:
“The story Peace Dancer is about a song and dance that is thousands of years old originating from the time of the flood. Songs have been composed for different Chiefs up and down the Pacific Northwest coast. The Chief who is chosen to do this sacred dance is recognized as a healer in each community and the songs and dances are a reminder of the great flood and how the people lost their way and their love for all things in creation. During the dance there is a time when the dancer shakes eagle down from their headdress to remind people of the flood.” 
Whilst this text afforded many music making opportunities, the composer chose to focus on one moment:

	“We have really lost our way, we have not taught out children love and respect”.

This is achieved by dividing this short piece into ‘moments’: meditation – awakening – realization – humility. It takes you, the audience, on an emotional journey, similar to realizing you have been in the wrong; maybe you have been unkind or acted in a way that does not become you. Once you realize the consequence of your actions, remorse and the understanding that there is a need to move forward with humility and grace follows. Thus is the lesson of Peace Dancer.

Peace Dancer

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

Lesions (2017) for clarinet, horn and cello

Catherine Likhuta

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