Stephanie Lamprea, Soprano 
Jeremy Bruns, Organ

2020.07.12

Prayer (Gather Up)- text by Langston Hughes

An original composition using the Sanctus from the Latin Mass. 

Here is the English translation:
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts:
Heaven and Earth are full of thy glory:
Hosanna, in the highest.
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord:
Glory to thee, O Lord in the highest.

Sanctus

Hymn Arrangement of Sweet Hour of Prayer

I love hymns! This one has gotten me through some tough times. I hope someone is blessed by this.


Sweet Hour of Prayer

Arrangement of "Amazing Grace"

Lead Vocal: Ben Moore
BGV'S and All Instruments: Carlos Simon

Amazing Grace

Generations

I. Sow Good Seeds
II. The Last Days
III. Follow the Plan

computer generated sounds

Program Notes

My patriarchal heritage shows three generations of preachers. My great grand father, Bishop Henry C. Brooks, who began preaching in 1925, my grandfather, Bishop Charles W. Hairston in 1968 and my father Bishop Carlos O. Simon, Sr. in 1994. I chose to use audio clips from past sermons after discovering old LP and several old cassette tapes of sermons from my great grandfather and grandfather. I strove to use musical elements that would enhance the message of each proclamation while giving a personal insight to each man. Sow Good Seeds features several sounds that give the impression of something blooming or growing. The Last Days includes a processed Fender Rhodes which my grandfather bought in 1968 at the opening of his church and willed to me at his death in 2010. An ominous bed of dark textures are utilized to create “perilous times”. I used the Hammond organ interspersed throughout Follow the Plan to create a realistic experience of actually being in a worship service. There is a three note (or sometimes chord) motif that appears several times throughout both movements that represent the passion for each one’s vocation. The goal of this work is recreate the moment at which the sermon was given and to display a musical and cultural heritage that should be celebrated. 
                                               -CarlosOliverSimonJr.

CSJr. © 2014

Generations

With its naturalistic metaphors and dark themes, I strove to create an lugubrious, ominous atmosphere through warm but gloomy textures. A recurring motif appears in the piano accompaniment to represent the overarching theme of hopelessness. Overall, the music thickens in density as the piece transpires to create the progression of darkness. As the saying goes: “It is darkest just before day break.”

-Carlos Simon, composer
Text by Courtney Ware

Paul Grosvenor, voice
Nathan Harris, piano

Nightfall- for Voice and Piano

As young boy, I worked with my grandfather during the summers paving driveways in Rocky Mount, Virginia. He was a task master. Things had to be done the right way and with haste when he asked for it in his own playful way. He would say, “Pull those weeds up likety split!” or “Shovel that dirt lickety split!” It was tortuous work during the hot summer days but ultimately proved quite lucrative at the end of the day when my grandfather paid me for the days work.
This piece, in its whimsical character, draws on inspiration from that colloquial phrase, Likety Split, coined in the 1860s. It meant to do something quickly or in a hurry. I used the rhythmic syllabic stresses of the phrase as a main motif for the piece. (li-ke-ty split) To create a playful mood, I used bouncing pizzicato lines in the cello part over wildly syncopated rhythms played by the piano. Harmonically, the central idea moves in parallel motion in thirds between the voices. As the piece develops to an agitated state, both instruments relentlessly rhythmically drive to a climatic ending - done so in a lickety split fashion...
~Carlos Oliver Simon Jr. (2015)

Lickety Split- Cello and Piano

When words fail, music speaks. 
-Hans Christian Andersen

These are my feelings on the crimes of BOTH the oppressor and the oppressed in Baltimore and throughout the country.   

Feelings About Baltimore- Piano

"The second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' No other commandment is greater than these."
Mark 12:31 NLT

Lead Vocals: Paula Champion

BGV's: Carlos Simon and Paula Champion

All instruments: Carlos Simon

Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood (Cover)- Paula Champion

A Hopeless Romantic

Score for the First Runner Up for the Marvin Hamlisch Film Scoring Contest

Emma's Dreams

As Free (Featuring Bobbiejak)

As the son of a preacher, I grew up hearing and learning about the mystic and
powerful stories of the bible. The story of the ten plagues of Egypt was one particular
story that created compelling imagery. This fascinating account of the Jewish people
overcoming years of bondage has been told for thousands of years and is known by many
people from all walks of life. I have decided to retell the story through music. “The
Plagues of Egypt” is the first of several pieces that will be part of a larger work entitled,
Bible Stories.
Though the horrific plagues that swept across Egypt effected thousands, the focus of
this piece is from the perspective of the stubborn Pharaoh who unwillingly loosens his
grip on the enslaved Jews. Pharaoh’s hardened heart is conveyed through two accented
chords which recurs throughout the piece as a motif. With the entrance of each plague,
light, heavenly, metallic sounds from the harp, celeste, and percussion section coupled
with static strings are used to depict the spirit of God. Dark, brooding harmonies
represent the “Angel of Death” which takes the life of Pharaoh’s first born child. Musical
tension builds to a climax to depict the emotional despair of the stubborn leader. After
the torment of the loss of his first born, Pharaoh’s hardened heart is broken.This is
expressed by the once fullness of accented chords to a thinner texture of single
instruments as Pharaoh grieves in despair.
~Carlos Oliver Simon, Jr. (2015)


Recorded live at Underwood New Music Readings, June 14, 2016  

www.americancomposers.org 

Plagues of Egypt - Excerpt

Dark Washington

This piece was inspired by an interview with Oprah Winfrey which she quoted:
“I have felt the presence of God my whole life. Even when I didn't have a name for it, I could feel the voice bigger than myself speaking to me, and all of us have that same voice. Be still and know it. You can acknowledge it or not. You can worship it or not. You can praise it, you can ignore it or you can know it. Know it. It’s always there speaking to you and waiting for you to hear it in every move, in every decision .
-Oprah Winfrey, May 25, 2011

-Carlos Simon
(2016)

be still and know

Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah

AMEN! (2017) was commissioned by the University of Michigan Symphony Band and is a homage to my family's four generational affiliation with the Pentecostal church. My intent is to re-create the musical experience of an African American Pentecostal church service that I enjoyed being apart of while growing up in this denomination.
Pentecostal denominations, such as: Church of God in Christ (C.O.G.IC.), Pentecostal Assemblies of God, Apostolic, Holiness Church, among many others, are known for their exuberant outward expressions of worship.
The worship services in these churches will often have joyous dancing, spontaneous shouting, and soulful singing. The music in these worship services is a vital vehicle in fostering a genuine spiritual experience for the congregation.
The three movements in AMEN! are performed without break to depict how the different parts of a worship services flows into the next. In the first movement, I’ve imagined the sound of an exuberant choir and congregation singing harmoniously together in a call and response fashion. The soulful second movement quotes a gospel song, "I'll Take Jesus For Mine” that I frequently heard in many services. The title, AMEN!, refers to the plagal cadence or “Amen" cadence (IV-I), which is the focal point of the climax in the final movement. Along with heavily syncopated rhythms and interjecting contrapuntal lines, this cadence modulates up by half step until we reach a frenzied state, emulating a spiritually heighten state of worship.
CSJr. Music © 2017
www.coliversimon.com

Amen! (2017) University of Michigan Symphony Band

He Is- University of Michigan Choir- Detroit Orchestra Hall

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed— Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)

Tony Tony Tony

Let America Be America Again- Tony Arnold and Third Angle Quartet

Space and Time

And They Lynched Him on a Tree

Celestial Heavens

Leah's Fugue

Fun at the Carnival

“The Block” is a short orchestral study based on the late visual art of Romare Bearden. Most of Bearden’s work reflects African-American culture in urban cities as well as the rural American south. Although Bearden was born in Charlotte, NC, he spent his most of his life in Harlem, New York. With its vibrant artistic community, this piece aims to highlight the rich energy and joyous sceneries that Harlem expressed as it was the hotbed for African American culture.
“The Block” is comprised of six paintings that highlight different buildings (church, barbershop, nightclub, etc.) in Harlem on one block. Bearden’s paintings incorporate various mediums including watercolors, graphite, and metallic papers. In the same way, this musical piece explores various musical textures which highlight the vibrant scenery and energy that a block on Harlem or any urban city exhibits.

The Block (2019) for orchestra

Portrait Of Queen Excerpt (Jim Crow)

If this is peace, this dead and leaden thing,
Then better far the hateful fret, the sting.
Better the wound forever seeking balm
Than this gray calm! 

Is this pain's surcease? Better far the ache,
The long-drawn dreary day, the night's white wake,
Better the choking sigh, the sobbing breath
Than passion's death!

Commissioned by the Mirror Visions Ensemble. Premiered in New York and Paris, France.

THIS LAND IS OURS-PARIS

DEAD FIRES- for Baritone and piano (text by Jessie Fauset)

Daniel Washington, bass-baritone
Joshua Marzan, piano

Prayer(Gather Up)- for bass baritone and piano

2019-03-01 Brian Major

Caro mio ben (arrangement)for baritone and piano

The Crane Wind Ensemble- Brian Doyle, conductor

CWE Live 2019: 9.20 Family Weekend

Sweet Chariot(for wind ensemble)

Dead Fires (for Baritone and Piano)

Funky Money

Carlos Simon is a native of Atlanta, Georgia whose music ranges from concert music for large and small ensembles to film scores with influences of jazz, gospel, and neo- romanticism.
Simon’s latest album, MY ANCESTOR’S GIFT, was released on the Navona Records label in April 2018. Described as an “overall driving force” (Review Graveyard) and featured on Apple Music’s “Albums to Watch”, MY ANCESTOR’S GIFT incorporates spoken word and historic recordings to craft a multifaceted program of musical works that are inspired as much by the past as they are the present.
As a part of the Sundance Institute, Simon was named as a Sundance Composer Fellow in 2018, which was held at the historic Skywalker Ranch. His string quartet, Elegy, honoring the lives of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner was recently performed at the Kennedy Center for the Mason Bates JFK Jukebox Series. With support from the US Embassy in Tokyo and US/Japan Foundation, Simon traveled with the Asia/America New Music Institute (AANMI) on a two-week tour of Japan in 2018 performing concerts in some of the most sacred temples and concert spaces in Japan including Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Other recent accolades include being a Composer Fellow at the Cabrillo Festival for

 Contemporary Music, winning the Underwood Emerging Composer Commission from the American Composers Orchestra in 2016, the prestigious Marvin Hamlisch Film Scoring Award in 2015, and the Presser Award from the Theodore Presser Foundation in 2015.
Recent commissions have come from Morehouse College celebrating its 150th founding anniversary, the University of Michigan Symphony band celebrating the university’s 200th anniversary, Albany Symphony’s Dogs of Desire (American Music Festival) as well as serving as the young composer-in-residence with the the Detroit Chamber String and Winds in 2016. Simon’s music has been performed by Tony Arnold, the Third Angle New Music Ensemble, Hub New Music Ensemble, the Asian/ American New Music Institute, the University of Michigan Symphony Band, American Composers Orchestra, Flint Symphony, the Color of Music Festival, Dogs of Desire, University of North Texas Symphony Band, University of Miami Symphony Band, Georgia State University Wind Ensemble and many other professional performance organizations. His piece, Let America Be America Again (text by Langston Hughes) is scheduled to be featured in an upcoming PBS documentary chronicling the inaugural Gabriela Lena Frank Academy of Music. He now serves as a member of the music faculty at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.

 Acting as music director and keyboardist for GRAMMY Award winner Jennifer Holliday, Simon has performed with the Boston Pops Symphony, Jackson Symphony, and St. Louis Symphony. He has toured internationally with soul GRAMMY-nominated artist, Angie Stone, and performed throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Simon earned his doctorate degree at the University of Michigan, where he studied with Michael Daugherty and Evan Chambers. He has also received degrees from Georgia State University and Morehouse College. Additionally, he studied in Baden, Austria at the Hollywood Music Workshop with Conrad Pope and at New York University’s Film Scoring Summer Workshop.
Carlos Simon, Jr. is a member of many music organizations including ASCAP, where he was honored as one of the "Composers to Watch" in 2015. He is also an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Music Sinfonia Fraternity and a member of the National Association of Negro Musicians, Society of Composers International, and Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honor Society. His compositions have been published by the Gregorian Institute of America (GIA) Publications and Hal Leonard Publications.

Carlos Simon

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