A Return to Orlando

It was wonderful to return to Orlando for a residency at the University of Central Florida (where I spent thirty years!) for workshops with invited choirs and a culminating performance of I AM IN NEED OF MUSIC with 400 singers in the magnificent Steinmetz Hall of the Dr. Phillips' Center for the Performing Arts.  Thank you Jeff Redding and Kelly Miller for the invitation!  So great to see you and our extraordinary colleague, pianist Robin Jensen!

Choirs and More Choirs

I had the great opportunity to work with Matthew Swope's talented singers from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and visiting high school choirs at VanderCook College of Music in March and a variety of singers at festivals in Chicago and Gatlinburg in April.  Well-prepared, eager and engaged singers!

New Works and Publications

In March I delivered the full score and parts of A TIMBERED CHOIR, the commissioned work for Chung Park and the St. Olaf Orchestra, to honor the work of Wendell, Tanya, and Mary Berry. Scored for tenor solo and full orchestra, it is a setting of three of Wendell Berry's poems about great trees. 

This spring AGAIN, AGAIN... for SATB a cappella chorus, was released by Walton Music and I CARRY YOUR HEART, for SSA chorus with piano, by Hinshaw Music.  

A Very Grande Prairie Christmas

My first concert with the Grande Prairie Singers was December third, to a packed house at Flossmoor Community Church.  Not only was this my "thirty-some" year return to this chorus, but also to this beautiful church, where I was Director of Music an equal number of years ago.  A wonderful concert of music by Bach, Holst, Forrest, Whitacre, Rutter, Hagenberg, Brunner and others.  Joyful singing full of heart and spirit..

I Am the Raccoon!

What a joyful experience to partner as Composer-in-Residence with Doreen Rao on Ravinia Sings!, her inaugural project with the Ravinia Elementary School in Highland Park! Her masterful teaching brought choral singing to children in grades 1-5 for the first time.  The school mascot is the raccoon, so what better piece to compose and dedicate to these young singers than "I Am the Raccoon"!  Great fun.  Thanks Doreen and the little raccoons!