Pleasing to the ears and fun to listen to!

Commissioned and premiered by Kathryn Barnard and the Pittsburgh Girls Choir with Laura and Ray Very, soloists. Texts: 1. Gerard Manley Hopkins, "Let me be to Thee as the Circling Bird;" 2. George Herbert, "The Call;" 3. George Herbert, "Love (III);" 4. Christina Rosetti, "Love Came Down at Christmas." This is the premiere, movements 3 & 4.

Dec. 16, 2011

Love Bade Me Welcome 3-4

Quodlibet by Arne Running

Premiered by Carnegie Mellon University Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Maestro Daniel Curtis at Carnegie Music Hall (Pittsburgh, USA) on March 5, 2014.

Obscure light is a piece for orchestra made of contrasts arising from contradictions: from order to chaos, from melancholy to burlesque, from drama and mystery to optimism and light. Many of its lines were composed using Nyquist, the programming language for Algorithmic Composition developed at Carnegie Mellon University by Roger Dannenberg. Stochastic rules were generated to create motives selected carefully to serve completely expression, and similarly do the different elements chosen to form part of the piece: obscure and dissonant harmonies from the spectralism, harmonies from jazz in tonal and polytonal combinations, clusters and sound masses, out of tune unisons and extreme registers for special constrained sonorities, peaceful and innocent melodies becoming devilish motives, hypnotic canons, and rhythms from memories of fanfares from my home country, Spain, together with melodies and rhythms from American influences, all of them presented with drama and a wild spirit.

Recording Engineer, Editing and Mastering: Sang Mok Lee

Oscura Luz for orchestra (Obscure Light, 2014)

This was premiered at Kyle Simpson's recital at Washington & Jefferson College, February 19th 2017.

Using portions from Kerouac's "On The Road" and told from the point of view of Sal Paradise, the music takes the audience on a journey through the world of Sal, Dean, Terry, and the many places they visit. Using influences of jazz and contemporary classical sounds, the music aspires to accompany the beautiful poetry that helped define the beatnik generation.

On The Road Suite (2017)
text by Jack Kerouac, music by Kyle Simpson
I. Dean Moriarty
II. Towards the Pacific
III. Bop in the American Night
IV. Hopping the Freight Car
V. The Old West
VI. Terry and the LA Bus
VII. Cotton-picking
VIII. Parting & Autumn

narration by Patrick Arena

Eftihia Victoria Arkoudis-flute
Kira Bokalders-clarinet
André Januário-bassoon
Milt Barney-alto saxophone
Tim Brutscher-trumpet
Kevin Clark-trombone
Crystal Qi--violin
Stephen Weiss-viola
Robin Hasenpflug-cello
Tony DePaolis-bass
Mitch Greco-drumset
Anthony Ambroso-guitar
Alex Ayers-piano
Brandon Collins-vibraphone

On The Road Suite

Recorded by the Back Row Quintet
Connor Fuhrmann, trombone
Kenneth Johnson, trombone
Brad Snyder, bass trombone
Ian McCollum, euphonium
Ian Graves, tuba


Program Note:
Origin Story draws its name from the common entertainment practice of telling a character's back-story, revealing the influences that formed the individual's identity and status as either a protagonist or antagonist. This piece is not intended to depict a specific narrative, but rather a general drama and atmosphere associated with its namesake. Like many sagas containing origin stories, the music's inception and culmination are fatefully connected.

Origin Story

Dark Shadows (haunting)

Psalm 23

Love Languages

McKinley improvised on the theme of "Happy Birthday" as part of a concert tribute to composer Gunther Schuller on occasion of his 65th birthday. Performed November 28, 1990 at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall in Boston MA.

Homage To Gunther ("Happy Birthday" solo piano improvisation)

Kyle Simpson, composer, trumpet player, and bandleader, is a graduate from Lawrence Conservatory of Music in Appleton, WI and The University of Montana in Missoula, MT.  His main composition teachers were Fred Sturm at Lawrence and Charles Nichols at The University of Montana.  Simpson has written many works for large jazz groups, chamber jazz groups, solo trumpet, synthesized electronic music, Orchestra, and Wind Ensemble.  Recent compositions were featured at the Buddy DeFranco Jazz Festival in Missoula, where he also performed with Lew Soloff and Paquito D'Rivera. Other compositions have been featured at the Fête de la Musique Ile d'Yeu (2011) and Ostrava Days (2011).  Simpson’s music has been described as, “lively with rhythmic vitality” and also, “lyrical with a brooding elegance.” 

In 2005, he studied with Dave Douglas and other great contemporary jazz artists in Banff, Canada at the Banff Centre for the Arts. In 2006, Simpson was awarded an ASCAP Scholarship to study at the Henry Mancini Institute in Los Angeles, CA, where he worked with Maria Schneider, Vince Mendoza, Jack Smalley, and Bruce Broughton.  Simpson’s work Autumn Fields was scored for chamber orchestra and was premiered in Schoenberg Hall at UCLA and conducted by Vince Mendoza. Kyle Simpson has also worked with the Universal Studio orchestra in creating new library music.

In 2007, Simpson went on tour with the World Famous Glenn Miller Orchestra as a split soloist and arranger under the direction of Larry O’Brien. Simpson also produced and arranged The Very Thought of You, album by the male vocalist, Ryan Garfi, of the same band.

Recently, Simpson was awarded the Michael Iovenko Fellowship to study composition at the Ecole Normale De Musique in Paris, France.  In June 2011, he was also awarded the Film Music Foundation Scholarship for the NYU/ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop in New York. Simpson just finished a recording project with the Czech Radio Symphony Brass Quintet and String Quartet, in recording new pieces written for those ensembles. In August 2011, Simpson conducted his own composition Journey Into Wissameking with the Janaček Philharmonic, in Ostrava, CZ.

On The Road Suite

Kyle Simpson Film & Media Composer

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