@jeredkostenko: Wow, thank you so much for your enthusiasm and support! Deeply gratifying.

The Deeper Breath To Follow

This performance by the Susquehanna University Orchestra, Jennifer Sacher Wiley, director.

Composed by Patrick Long.
Score and parts available from www.longsound.com

Double Secret Probation for orchestra

Hannah Lash - From The Depths I Cry Out

for chamber orchestra. Written for the Illinois Modern Ensemble, February 2018

Halo

Audio from the world premiere of 'in the space that separates' by the Central Dauphin Wind Ensemble and Matt Carraher. 

Commissioned by Central Dauphin, Matt Carraher, Central Dauphin East, and Curtis Glidewell in partnership with Composers and Schools in Concert. For more information, visit: www.chriscresswellmusic.com

in the space that separates (2018)

Performance recording from the U.S. Premiere at CCM, University of Cincinnati on February 22nd.

Michael Hall, viola
Michael Delfin, piano

Score Information: https://www.manfredoniamusic.com/looking-down-from-above

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PROGRAM NOTES:

Looking Down from Above is a piece inspired by flying, observing the ocean from a birds-eye view. When Michael Hall commissioned a new piece for viola and piano, with an included fascination about the topic of flight, my mind fiddled with multiple ideas. Soaring above the ocean, however, is something that's always captivated me. Whether it's in a plane, or simply an imaginative thought of what seagulls see on a daily basis, there's a grandeur to the sea that is unmatched.
 
Place yourself above the ocean with no airborne machinery or vehicles in sight. What do you hear? Wind? An occasional blow of air from a whale or dolphin? Birds cawing? Silence? There is a certain stillness to the air surrounding the open waters. But underneath the waves exists so much movement and life, that humans rarely see on a frequent basis. Truly, there is so much humans don't know about the ocean that it's both terrifying and thrilling. And to think that when soaring above barely-traveled territory on a calm, sunny day, there is such a quiet surrounding the sea.
 
Within the music you will hear the calm of the ocean air, the joy of viewing the open waters, and the majesty of knowing what lies beneath.

Looking Down from Above: for viola + piano

Described by conductor Jordan Randall Smith as an "extremely taut and high-octane work [I could strip paint with this thing]", this short ebullient curtain-raiser puts the orchestra to the test both rhythmically and coloristically. See more at https://www.ed-windels.com/off-beat.

Off Beat For Orchestra

"In her typically imaginative style, Assad has taken a dozen or so of Bach’s greatest hit tunes, from the opening of the Toccata in D Minor to “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” and whirled them through a music processor. Some melodies are truncated and cut up, while others are spiced with dissonance in the manner of Peter Warlock’s Capriol Suite, and some are placed in playful counterpoint against each other. Much passing around of parts among the individual players allows me to point to violist Elisabeth Prior and cellist Robin Bonnell in the back rows as outstandingly strong, lyrical performers. The violins got an occasional descant accompaniment, notably a pizzicato rendering from the Well-Tempered Clavier. At one point, the cellos are running a theme from one of the unaccompanied cello suites, the violas play the “Air on the G String” over it as a counterpoint line, and the violins chip in with a fragment from a Brandenburg Concerto. Listeners who love their Bach but refuse to take him too seriously would enjoy this." 

San Francisco Classical Voice

Suite For Lower Strings Mov. 1

For flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin & cello. 
Performed by Ars Nova Dallas at the Dallas Festival of Modern Music 2011.
Wayla Chambo (flute), Jonathan Jones (clarinet), Reuben Allred (piano), Leah Greenfield (violin), Greg White (percussion), Zack Reaves (cello), Jordan Randall Smith (conductor).

Untangled (2011)

Conductor Jordan Randall Smith conducts Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. Smith leads Ars Nova Dallas at the 2009 Dallas Festival of Modern Music. 

More information at www.jordanrsmith.com

Watch on youtube at youtube.com/watch?v=b0Lo5BYZlWM

The work opens from the poet’s perspective. He sets the scene. Pierrot is heard in the music, though not yet mentioned by name. We hear the moonlight, painted by the instruments. 

Lyrics:

Den Wein, den man mit Augen trinkt,	The wine that one drinks with the eyes 
Gießt Nachts der Mond in Wogen nieder,	The moon spills nights into the waves, 
Und eine Springflut überschwemmt	And a Springflood overflows 
Den stillen Horizont.	The silent horizon. 

Gelüste schauerlich und süß,	Desires, visible and sweet 
Durchschwimmen ohne Zahl die Fluten!	Countless swim across the flood. 
Den Wein, den man mit Augen trinkt,	The wine that one drinks with the eyes 
Gießt Nachts der Mond in Wogen nieder.	The moon spills nights into the waves. 

Der Dichter, den die Andacht treibt,	The poet, who practices devotion, 
Berauscht sich an dem heilgen Tranke,	Enrapts himself on the holy drink, 
Gen Himmel wendet er verzückt	He turns against the sky ecstatic 
Das Haupt und taumelnd saugt und schlürit er	Headlong reeling sucks and slurps 
Den Wein, den man mit Augen trinkt.	The wine, that one drinks with the eyes.

01 Mondestrunken (Drunk with Moonlight)

Jordan Randall Smith is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Susquehanna University, and Music Director of Symphony Number One and Hunt's Church. He is also Conductor of the Hopkins Concert Orchestra, and Creative Director of the International Florence Price Festival. Jordan's leadership of Mahler's Fourth Symphony was praised by the Baltimore Sun: "The third movement, in particular, was quite sensitively molded." Conductor Alan Gilbert called Jordan’s conducting, “impressive.”

A 2010 Bruno Walter Fellow at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Smith studied with Marin Alsop and Gustav Meier and conducted the festival orchestra in concert. Jordan has recorded six commercial releases and led over 50 world premieres.

Smith has mentored hundreds of young musicians in ensembles across the country and is currently the conductor of the Frederick Regional Youth Orchestra Symphonia. A Doctor of Musical Arts candidate in Conducting at the Peabody Conservatory, Jordan was invited to give a TED Talk at TEDxMidatlantic 2017 and is a contributor to Baltimore Magazine.

Learn more at http://www.jordanrsmith.com

01 Mondestrunken (Drunk with Moonlight)

Jordan Randall Smith

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