Joel Puckett's new work for winds, A Proper Goodbye in the premiere performance by Gerard Morris and the Puget Sound Wind Ensemble.

LIVE PERFORMANCE

Score can be found here: https://issuu.com/joelpuckettmusic/docs/puckett_a_proper_goodbye_v.1.2_4.15.2022

A Proper Goodbye Premiere (Live)

Live Premiere LSU Damon Talley conducting, Kimberly Sparr, soloist

W. S. Merwin's poetry has been a constant in my adult life. His words bring me comfort in times of anxiety, smiles in times of happiness, and comfort in times of grief. 2020-2021 brought difficult times for all of us, and I once again found myself turning to Merwin's words. 
 
I rarely know exactly what his poetry means, but I love how they make me feel. This was no different for the poem that inspired my viola concerto, I wake in the dark and remember. As I was writing, I rolled over the imagery in my mind: "wake in the dark and remember," "listening to the black hour," "you are asleep beside me while around us the trees full of night lean," etc. etc. These images are so vivid and clear yet they lack any strict narrative, so my imagination became free to run wild and see the sounds the words inspire.
 
The concerto is in two movements but played without a break. 
 
I wake in the dark and remember was commissioned by an international consortium of Universities led by Damon Talley and the Louisiana State University. It is dedicated with great admiration and gratitude to the extraordinary violist Kimberly Sparr, who gave the premiere.
 
Below is the W. S. Merwin poem that inspired this concerto. Please take a moment to read these words and listen to the sounds they provoke in your own imagination.
 
Rain Travel
I wake in the dark and remember
it is the morning when I must start
by myself on the journey
I lie listening to the black hour
before dawn and you are
still asleep beside me while
around us the trees full of night lean
hushed in their dream that bears
us up asleep and awake then I hear
drops falling one by one into
the sightless leaves and I
do not know when they began but
all at once there is no sound but rain
and the stream below us roaring
away into the rushing darkness

I Wake In The Dark And Remember (viola concerto)

LIVE, March 4, 2023, Timothy J. Robblee, conductor
Armstrong Concert Hall, Winchester VA
Scenario by Gary Winter
https://jonathannewman.com/music/piilani-and-koolau

Pi‘ilani and Ko‘olau, an imagined ballet [Shenandoah Conservatory Wind Ensemble]

for wind ensemble

performed by the Texas Tech University Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Sarah McKoin, conductor.

Deciduous (live)

A synthetic sound world of neon nostalgia that evolves into an optimistic synth anthem of bliss.

This is a reading session that Glen Adsit and the Hartt School generously did for me. Real performance(s) will be uploaded at some point in the future.

Synthetic Sunlight (Hartt School READING SESSION)

12 days of Christmas, arranged by Bob, played by Nadia!

Nadia Sirota - The 12 Days Of Christmas - by Robert Sirota

Tau Beta Sigma/Kappa Kappa Psi NIB World Premiere, July 2017.

4) The Low Arc Of The Sun

Play To Win From THE FIX Outlaw And Dennis

[@ 3 min] Team OBS goes ‘Inside the Huddle’ with Joel Puckett, composer of Minnesota Opera’s production of “The Fix” (with a libretto by Eric Simonson) about the fraudulent 1919 Chicago White Sox team. A guest who can shoot the breeze about sports…?!

[@ 37 min] Apparently there are still places that want to hire James Levine. In ‘Chalk Talk’, find out where in the world presenting an alleged sexual predator and cult-leader will still sell tickets...

[@ 46 min] In the ‘Two Minute Drill’, women take the reins of New Orleans Opera and Charlottesville Opera, while the Metropolitan Opera stops giving away free online content…

www.facebook.com/obschi1
www.operaboxscore.com
@operaboxscore

George Cederquist's Album

Getting Our Fix with Joel Puckett!

The famous intro to Rhapsody in Blue done on PICCOLO TRUMPET!

This recording is a world premiere for piano and jazz band arranged by Allan Gilliland and Matt Catingub.  Featuring Jon Kimura Parker (piano) and Jens Lindemann (piccolo trumpet) along with the Canadian All-Star JazzPops Orchestra.  Watch for the full release on November 19, 2020

Rhapsody In Blue Big Band INTRO

Joel Puckett is a composer leaving both audiences and the press buzzing. His music has been described as, “soaringly lyrical” (Minneapolis Star Tribune), “Puccini-esque” (Wall Street Journal), and “containing a density within a clarity, polyphony within the simple and – most importantly – beautiful and seemingly spiritual.” (Audiophile Audition). Parterre Box recently proclaimed, “Puckett should be a household name” and the Philadelphia Inquirer’s David Patrick Stearns mused, “if the name Joel Puckett isn’t etched into your brain, it should be.” In 2011 NPR Music listed him as one of the top 100 composers under 40 in the world.

Hailed as “visionary” (Washington Post) and “an astonishingly original voice” (Philadelphia Inquirer), his music is performed by the leading artists of our day and is consistently recognized by organizations such as the American Composers Forum, BMI, Chorus America, National Public Radio, and the American Bandmasters Association.

Puckett’s music attracts diverse performers and listeners through its emotional energy and commitment. Melding tradition with innovation, his distinctive style grows from his power to create transcendent experiences using charismatic musical language.

The Fix, a grand opera commissioned by Minnesota Opera, premiered in the March 2019 to packed houses, enthusiastic audiences, and largely effusve praise. With a libretto by Academy Award and Tony Award winner, Eric Simonson, the work depicts the rise and fall of the 1919 Chicago White Sox. It is a tragedy ripe with power, romance and redemption, set against the backdrop of America’s favorite pastime. Puckett’s earlier commissions have been premiered and performed worldwide, to exuberant critical acclaim.

His flute concerto, The Shadow of Sirius, premiered in 2010 and has received more than 200 performances and been recorded multiple times, including 2015’s Naxos Surround Sound disc, “Shadow of Sirius,” which received a 2016 Grammy Nomination. Currently the Chair of Music Theory, Ear Training, and Piano Skills at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Puckett presents workshops nationwide and frequently serves as an adjudicator at competitions for rising composers. His music is represented worldwide by Bill Holab Music.

I Wake In The Dark And Remember (viola concerto)

Joel Puckett

Related tracks