My friend Derrick Pennix shared a long bus ride with a young girl and her father, and over the course of that ride became fast friends - over the course of many years they wrote a number of letters, and later Derrick commissioned me to write a song cycle based on those letters.  Tammy Randa was a Chicago sports team supporter, wrote very vividly about the very family 'accidents" and wrote to Derrick about what of her initial crushes.  The music is often very Charles Ives-like.

Letters to Derrick

First Lines

Accidentals

No...

Sporting Life

Last Lines

I am an eclectic composer who writes with a postmodern mischievousness: my pieces can be comedic/ironic, simple/complex, or humble/reverent. My recent projects have taken a turn toward turn towards the sweeter side, exploring a consonant adiatonicism.

Letters to Derrick

FRANK FELICE, composer