Written for Chad Sell, and premiered in October 2016 in Lakeland, Florida. 

Thunder captures both the turbulence, and intense beauty of a storm. After a suspenseful calm, the atmospheric forces are shown in the form of powerful cluster chords and driving rhythms. Dancing wind and rain find themselves overshadowed by the mighty forces of the storm, which confront and change everything in its path.

"Your voice it thunders
The ground is shaking
The mighty mountains now are trembling
Creation sees You
And starts composing
The fields and trees they start rejoicing."

- Gungor, "The Earth is Yours"

Cello: Chad Sell
Piano: Robin McLaughlin

Photo by Lane Pearman usable by Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/fireboatks/18970323232

Thunder

Emerging composer Robin McLaughlin has had works performed throughout the United States, and has been recognized by ASCAP numerous times for her music. Twice a finalist for the Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, she has had work performed by ensembles such as the Norfolk Contemporary Ensemble, the Red Clay Saxophone Quartet, and the Fresno State New Music Ensemble. 

Robin has been a fellow at the Norfolk New Music Workshop hosted by the Yale School of Music, and has also been invited to Composition Intensive at St. Mary's College in South Bend, Indiana. She has had numerous works presented at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and Houghton College, highlights of which include her saxophone quartet On this day performed by the Red Clay Saxophone Quartet, and her orchestral work The Joy of my Spirit by the Houghton College Philharmonia as a winner in Houghton’s 2015 Concerto Competition. 

Enthusiastic about music education, Robin currently serves in an administrative position in University of North Carolina-Greensboro’s Community Arts Collaborative. As a pianist, McLaughlin has performed at the Kennedy Center, and has also been soloist for the Houghton College Symphonic Wind Ensemble. While at Houghton she studied with Bill John Newbrough, and she is a frequent collaborator, accompanist, and instructor. She has also studied conducting with Janette LaBarre, and guest conducted the Houghton College Wind Ensemble in April 2016.

Robin recently completed a Bachelors Degree at Houghton College in Music Composition and Music Education, and is now pursuing her Masters at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro in Music Composition. She has studied composition with Mark Enbegretson, Sarah Hutchings, and David Horace Davies. She has had additional studies and masterclasses with Eric Ewazen, Martin Bresnick, Kristin Kuster, Cameron Britt, Zae Munn, Michael Schelle, and Jay Batzner. 

Upcoming performances of her music include her trio Two Halves of a Whole at the Music by Women Festival at the Mississippi University for Women, and her chamber piece Unbound at the SCI Region IV Conference to be held at University of North Carolina-Greensboro. The violin and piano version of The Joy of my Spirit will also be included in an upcoming CD being put out by World Oceans Music.

Music Educator. Composer. Cellist. Mediocre Dancer.

Elise Seifert is a film and classical composer.  She attended the Hollywood Music Workshop in Baden, Austria where she studied with Conrad Pope and Joe Kraemer. Elise Seifert was the Head Officer of the Society of Composers, Inc. Student Chapter at UNC-Greensboro and the head organizer of the 2017 SCI Region IV Student Composers Conference. She was Artist in Residence with the Lloyd International Honors College at UNC-Greensboro for 2015-2016 and attended the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Workshop Summer 2015. Elise entered the University of North Carolina at Greensboro School of Music in 2012, majoring in Music Composition with a minor in French. She has since studied with Hummie Mann, Mark Engebretson, Alejandro Rutty and Pascale Jakubowski. While at UNC-Greensboro she has had many opportunities to have pieces performed by internationally known groups such as the Daedalus Quartet and the Oasis Saxophone Quartet, and has been able to collaborate with student film makers to create original film scores.

Elise Seifert was born in 1994 and grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina. She started taking piano lessons at age 10 and continued playing flute, bassoon and percussion in middle and high school.  In high school she became very involved in the music department, joining Concert, Marching and Jazz bands, theatre pit ensembles and the Wilmington Youth Symphony Orchestra.  At her second high school, NC School of Science and Math, Elise worked as an assistant to the Director of Bands and became leader of the Pep Band. She was the principal bassoonist in the North Carolina All-State Orchestra and performed in the Eastern Regional Orchestra twice. 

When she is not tethered to her headphones Elise enjoys playing with her cats and hiking sections of the Appalachian trail.  She can be contacted at eliseseifertmusic@gmail.com