Live Performances

Written for the East Side Chamber Players' Opus 110 project - I, along with two other local Milwaukee composers (Joel Boyd and David Thompson), set text written by students at the Milwaukee Math and Science Academy to music for small chamber ensemble.

I wrote two pieces, one for soprano and soprano instruments, one for baritone and "baritone" instruments (some are arguably used as sopranos in the piece).  

This work is inspired by a MMSA second grader's short poem.  When I read the lines, "My friend Rosea slipped on ice, then a scent appeared and smelled like roses," I thought it was pretty striking - both blunt and poetic at the same time.  In the piece, I use different sections as story telling devices.  The opening is very somber and serene while the vocalist is telling the story.  The middle section focuses on the instruments playing, essentially, the imagination of the event.  The scent doesn't actually "appear" in the music or the words until the very end, with an animated take on the earlier harmonic sequences played by the flute, clarinet, and violin, ending with murmurs in the vocalist as the beauty overpowers her concern.  

This piece was debuted on November 2nd, 2013 by members of the ESCP: Sarah Richardson (soprano), Tatiana Pearson (flute), Amanda Brittain (clarinet), and Becky Schulz (violin).

Recorded by members of the ESCP:
Sarah Richardson, soprano
Becky Schulz, violin
Caylee Wells, flute
Liz Ramirez, clarinet
Produced/engineered by Cory A. Baker

...then a scent appeared and smelled like roses

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A collaboration between Kiings and Rae Cassidy.

Vocal Writing, Arrangement and Lyrics by Rae Cassidy.
Production and Instrumentation by Sean Foran and Chris Siegel.
Written by Sean Foran, Chris Siegel, and Rae Cassidy.
Mixed and Mastered by Sean Foran.
Cover Art by Chris Siegel.

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Feel (feat. Rae Cassidy)

Written for the East Side Chamber Players' Opus 110 project - I, along with two other local Milwaukee composers (Joel Boyd and David Thompson), set text written by students at the Milwaukee Math and Science Academy to music for small chamber ensemble.

I wrote two pieces, one for soprano and soprano instruments, one for baritone and "baritone" instruments (some are arguably used as sopranos in the piece).

This work is written for baritone, clarinet, horn, trombone, and cello.  Most of the small poems written by the students had an animal theme, so I used each individual poem in the music, transitioning using a repeated motif throughout all the instruments.  It's meant to be like a musical storybook, the music changing with each turning of the page to fit the picture that the narrator (the baritone) is describing.  

Recorded by members of the ESCP:
Paul Thompson, baritone
Stacy Check, clarinet
Michael Ferraro, cello
Joseph Riggenbach, trombone
Andrew Swinney, horn
Produced/engineered by Cory A. Baker

Zoology, as told by kids

Last year, I was chosen with 15 other composers around the world to write a collaborative piece titled "Ode to Hanover" for Plathner's Eleven's anniversary concert.  The full work - which is astounding both in content and in sheer volume (clocking in at 25-odd minutes)- can be listened to/seen here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_gMD5ZsJbk

This selection is my short one minute contribution for clarinet, bass clarinet, trumpet, piano, and bayan.  It's a unique combo of instruments that allowed me to play melodically with this short bit, as well as make some sweeping musical gestures towards the end.  


Die Wunderschöne Eilenriede - "Green Lung"

The Illinois premier of my award-winning work "Introduction and Tarantella" for woodwind quintet.

Flute, James Brinkmann
Oboe, Jonathan Thompson
Clarinet, Brady Richards
Horn, Melanie Erena
Bassoon, Nick Ritter

Live recording at Lutkin Hall at Northwestern University, December 6, 2014

Introduction And Tarantella

Belongs to my album "Pieces composed between October 2013 and October 2015".

This was the first piece I ever composed, in October 2013..

Offbeat Romance Part 1 MarizaCabral

"Downpour begins.
All seek shelter and protection,
Witnessing raw power and strength
In purest form:

Torrential storm,
Violence and insecurity
Taunt us indiscriminately.
We are helpless.

The Heavens bless us,
Sustaining body and mind.
Our brief lifetime, truly sublime;
The water thins."

Rainfall

World premier of my opus 1, Symphonic Dance for flute and piano at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas
Adrienne Inglis, flute
Kiyoshi Tamagawa, piano

Symphonic Dance for flute and piano, Op. 1

Premiere performance of Black Bile, a new work by Thumb's composer-in-association Marc Yeats.

January 8th, 2013 at the Recital Hall, Birmingham Conservatoire

Conductor: Dan Watson

Black Bile - Marc Yeats

Scarlatti wrote over 500 keyboard sonatas. I am not really a fan of them. This then is a tribute (in jest) to Scarlatti’s style. 

Scarlatti Scherzo (Piano Prelude 2011)

Performed at the CBSO Centre, Birmingham, on March 10th 2013 as part of Thumb's shared concert evening with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.

Commissioned with funding from RVW Trust
Thumb and BCMG shared project supported by the Musicians Benevolent Fund

Saxophone soloist: Kyle Horch
Violin soloist: Alexandra Wood
Conductor: Dan Watson

www.thisisthumb.co.uk

Sean Clancy, Strange to See You Again

This is the world premiere performance of Geoffrey Gordon's Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, commissioned for soloist Carol Wincenc and the Buffalo Philharmonic, from April 5, 2013,  Kleinhans Music Hall, Buffalo, New York. Making his US debut, Christoph-Mathias Mueller is the guest conductor.

******************************

     Geoffrey Gordon has produced a rich catalog of new music in diverse genres including chamber and orchestral, works for voice and solo instruments, and various scores for theater, dance and film. As a winner of the Aaron Copland Award, he twice served as  composer-in-residence at the Aaron Copland House. His music has been sponsored by the Barlow Endowment, the National Endowment for the Arts, the United Performing Arts Fund, the Concert Artists Guild, and the American Composers Forum, among many others.

     The Flute Concerto is dedicated to Carol Wincenc and the BPO, commissioned by the Orchestra and an anonymous donor. This world premiere represents a creative homecoming, in that both Ms. Wincenc and Mr. Gordon are former residents of Western New York.

     The new Concerto reveals a composer who has found a singular voice in the very large milieu of serious contemporary music. Today's manners and modes are very different from those which comprised the so-called avant-garde in the middle and later 20th century. The former was a time when 'anything goes' provided a chic calling card for composers who believed that in order to be 'new' they had to disavow as much 'past' as possible. But the idea of 'freedom of expression' for its own sake is now passe. In the last decade or two, many composers have embraced the idea that fine music should be 'about something' - as Tchaikovsky had the courage to say.

     Indeed, with Gordon's new setting for flute and orchestra, we have an up-to-date tone-tableau which conjures a snapshot of a much-beloved scene in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, i.e. in Act II when Oberon describes how Cupid delivers his charm. From the scene, Gordon attached two lines to the title page of the score:

    And certain stars shot madly from their spheres
           To hear the sea-maid's music.

     In full context:
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath
That the rude sea grew civil at her song,
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres
To hear the sea-maid's music.

That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,
Flying between the cold moon and the earth
Cupid, all arm'd; a certain aim he took
At a fair vestal, throned by the west,
And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;

      Gordon develops the motif in the solo line by providing a continuous narrative of tuneful fragments, all woven together in a long garland of evocative effects. To support the lyrical journey in the flute, the score calls for a large orchestra, with piano and celeste, and two very rich sections of percussion including: triangles, bell tree, mark tree, woodblocks, glockenspiel, marimba, tubular bells, bass drum, various cymbals, gongs, tam-tams and tom-toms, crotales, vibraphone, xylophone, and bongos.

     The work is scored in one movement with a tantalizing cadenza for the soloist. In order to blend the many musical episodes into a continuous musical chain, the composer employs many changes in tempo and meter. Rather than functioning as an accompanying escort, the orchestra serves to embellish the flow of the musical imagery conjured by the sea-maiden solo flute.

     Flutist Carol Wincenc takes on the role quite naturally, writing: "In Astrological terms, I am a born Cancerian - or moon child. As a lover of the water and an avid swimmer, a sea maiden is what I am. And as for the stars shooting madly, that is a very powerful image - luminescence and the forward force."

- Edward Yadzinski
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra

Concerto for Flute and Orchestra

Hi! I'm a 35-year-old writer living in Chicago who dabbles in classical music. I've been writing music since I was 18, amassing a good amount of chamber works and a few orchestral pieces, too, though I now primarily focus on arranging pieces for woodwinds. I'm particularly fond of video game music and have spent much of my free time creating suites for classic 90s JRPGs. I've been fortunate to have my music performed worldwide, and I'm always looking to connect and collaborate with other musicians to help bring a new life into neo-classical music.

Zoology, as told by kids

CJ Darnieder

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