modern classical

I composed this work in January of 2013 for the Mars Hill College Saxophone Quartet. The MHC Sax Quartet premiered it April 20, 2013 during the Mars Hill New Music Festival. 
The hall was in complete darkness. Each performer began playing in a different corner of the concert hall surrounding the audience.  Slowly each performer began moving to the front of the hall. When they played the last chord the lights quickly filled the hall.

Quartet for El Anatsui was inspired by the artwork of the Ghanaian artist, El Anatsui. He creates wonderful sheets of metal, wood and cloth that are hung on walls or stand alone on the floor. Each time one of his sculptures are presented at a museum they are presented differently. Which inspired me to write this piece which can be played differently at every performance.

Mars Hill College Saxophone Quartet
Alan Theisen - Alto
Andrew Jenkins - Alto
Dalton Woody - Tenor
Bradley Smith - Baritone

Quartet For El Anatsui (Open Piece No. 3)

Catalog #: SSSRCD0001
Release Date: October 16, 2006
Label: Sweetspot
Format: CD+DVD
Ensemble:: Alarm Will Sound
Notes: percussion credit (glockenspiel) 

(excerpt) Music for Mallet Instruments Voices and Organ

Glassworlds 1, Piano Works and Transcriptions by American composer Phillip Glass, inaugurates the complete Grand Piano Edition devoted to Mr. Glass – which is to include many premieres – a project sure to expand the understanding of and appreciation for one of the most influential musical minds of the 20th c. and beyond. Of the four works featured on this first volume, one, Dreaming Awake (2003) is receiving its world-premiere recording. The nearly half-hour long Orpheģe Suite was arranged for piano by Paul Barnes. The slightly longer How Now represents the earliest work on this program, dating from 1968. Pianist Nicolas Horvath, holder of a number of awards including First Prize of the Scriabin and the Luigi Nono Int’l Competitions, frequently organizes events and concerts of unusual length, including some in excess of twelve hours, and composers from a number of countries have written for him. In addition to his career as a virtuoso which takes him around the world, Mr. Horvath, a Steinway artist, is also a composer.

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Philip Glass: I. The Cafe -- Nicolas Horvath

Philip Glass’ Fifth String Quartet is the most substantial of his five quartets and the most traditional, using formal structures and expressive contrasts that go far beyond minimalism. While maintaining Glass’ unmistakable personal style, this is a quartet that delivers both driving energy and an unforgettable, threnody-like tenderness. Glass chose a string quartet for his score to the film Dracula to ‘evoke the feeling of the world of the 19th c.’, the music underpinning the film’s visual drama while avoiding obvious ‘horror’ effects. The String Sextet is an arrangement of Glass’s Third Symphony (Naxos 8.559202), combining symphonic scale with the intimacy synonymous with the chamber music genre. 

Glass: String Quartet No. 5 - Dracula - String Sextet

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String Quartet No. 5, Part V

Electric - or perhaps more fittingly electrifying - are the sounds emanating from the loudspeakers.  And all of it is unplugged.  The sounds are created by sonic.art - not only one of the finest saxophone quartets but also perhaps the most compelling chamber music formation anywhere. Featuring works by Philip Glass and Michael Nyman.

Philip Glass: String Quartet No. 3 - sonic.art Saxophone Quartet

Recorded Live on April 11 at Kilbourn Hall @ Eastman School of Music, Rochester NY
Music Nova & Ensemble Signal
Brad Lubman, conductor

Steve Reich - Double Sextet

Invention for Piano is the first piece I ever completed. This is a midi recording. One day I will work on the score again and make it a little more playable.

Invention for Piano

I composed this piece in the summer of 2012. I had heard a few open instrumentation works by different composers and I felt i should give it at try.

Open Piece No. 1 was premiered by the Central Michigan University New Music Ensemble December 9, 2012 in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. 

I will post the names of each performer when I receive them.  They did a fine job.  

CMU New Music Ensemble:

Mike Romaniak - Electronics
Kevin Keith - Piano
Jennifer Blackwell - Soprano Saxophone
Jenna Veldboom - Alto Saxophone
Nathan Brown - Trombone
Melissa Bialecki - Cello
Kevin Wilson - Double Bass
David Abraham - Percussion
Steve Bott - Percussion

modern classical

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