Snowfall now in print

I'm pleased that Walton Music has released SNOWFALL, for SATB a cappella chorus, on Kazuaki Tanahashi's translation of a Ryokan poem.  

GREAT PEACE

I recently delivered the score of GREAT PEACE, a multi-movement, twenty minute work, on texts by Kazuaki Tanahashi with Doreen Rao and Peter Levitt.  Scored for soprano, alto, tenor and bass soloists, mixed chorus, oboe and piano, the work is in three sections:  War, Naomi's Prayer, and Great Peace.

Mahler's BIG 8th

Once again, summer concerts in Chicago's Millennium Park were a weekly pilgrimage for me. The magnificent closing to the Grant Park Music Festival's 90th season and Carlos Kalmar's last concert after 25 years as music director was the big Mahler 8.  Sensational. And the rain held off until the final measures!

The World Comes to Newfoundland

I had the great fortune of attending the inaugural HarborVOICES International Festival of Collective Singing Traditions in St. John’s, Newfoundland in June --  an incredible week of performances, sessions, and collaborations that brought together forty-four choirs from around the world. What a unique opportunity to hear the Philippine Madrigal Singers, Vancouver Youth Choir, Inuksuk Drum Dancers, World Youth Choir, M’anam (men’s ensemble from Ireland) and Jacob Collier all in the same place! Gratitude to the Artistic Directors, staff, directors, singers and volunteers that made this week possible.  (And Newfoundland's craggy coasts, rocky beaches, balsam forests, rivers, waterfalls and lakes are gorgeous!)

Two Sides of the Grande Prairie Singers

In April the Grande Prairie Singers presented Music for a Great Space, a wide variety of sacred music in a gracious acoustic, and in just a week we present I Dream a World, a program that focuses on hopefulness and new beginnings, possibilities and change in the face of inequalities and injustices, prejudice and discrimination. Woven through the program are archival recordings of singers from the 60’s: Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Peter, Paul & Mary -- those who sang about social injustice, civil rights, war and peace. Their messages are our messages.