Winter Releases: New Music for Band, Orchestra, Choir, and Brass Quintet
When you live in Rochester, NY, you tend to stay inside during the winter months and hunker down.
The result: new music!
Here are some of my newest pieces - something for wind band, orchestra, choir, and brass quintet.
P.S. I’m wrapping up work on two other pieces as we speak: Green Diamond for Grade 5 Wind Band and Vocalise for singing marimba player. Look for more information on these pieces soon!
Benediction
SATB Choir, unaccompanied
1 min 40 sec
This anthem is perfect for a vow renewal, wedding ceremony, or the close of a worship service.
Now available through Sheet Music Plus!
An Hour of Hallowed Peace
Grade 3 Wind Band
5 minutes
Just last week I delivered the score and parts for this piece to the commissioning ensemble, the Kiski Area High School (PA) Band. The work will be premiered in May 2019.
Originally written for SATB Choir, this lush setting combines an original pastoral melody with the Irish hymn tune, St. Columbia. The resulting work is a moving, lyrical tribute that includes a number of short solos for flute and clarinet, and incorporates ensemble singing on “oo” at the end of the work.
Listen and pre-order the piece here.
Two Easter Hymn Settings for Brass Quintet
Brass Quintet (with opt. Congregation)
2 minutes
Just in time for Easter, here are new brass arrangements of two well-known Easter hymns: Jesus Shall Reign (I Know That My Redeemer Lives) and The Strife is O'er. This collection includes two different settings (A and B) of each hymn tune, to be played as prelude or service music or to accompany congregational singing.
See inside the score and listen to sample recordings here (my wife Ashley’s website).
Hope to see you soon as I come out of hibernation!
-Steve
Ashley and I spent last week at The Ohio State University School of Music and the Barnett Center for Integrated Arts and Enterprise doing a joint residency!
“In the Still Early Light” was recently named runner-up in the 2026 Heartland Symphony Orchestra composition contest. The orchestra received 180 entries from 10 countries.
Watch the stunning premiere of In the Still Early Light by the St. Olaf Orchestra. It is the first piece on the concert
In the Still Early Light will be premiered by the St. Olaf Orchestra, conducted by Chung Park at the St. Olaf Christmas Festival December 5th, 6th, and 7th. Watch and listen links below!
Covered Bridges was recently named to the 2025 Bandworld Top 100.
Covered Bridges (grade 3) was commissioned in 2024 by University of New Hampshire Graduate Students led by Kearsarge Regional High School Director of Bands, Sean Anderson (’22). The piece depicts travels along a quiet New England road. A companion piece to Aaron Copland's Down a Country Lane.
Branches, written this year for the ensemble fivebyfive, will be premiered on two performances, October 18th and 19th. In addition to the music written for flute, clarinet, piano, electric guitar and double bass, there will be dance choreographed by Ripp Greatbatch. And fivebyfive Executive Director Marc Webster will narrate a poem that Ashley and I co-wrote.
In April, I had a wonderful visit to my alma mater, the University of Miami. I was incredibly honored to be chosen as one of 100 alumni Centennial Medalists for the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.
This piece is inspired by the quantum mechanics theory known as "many worlds," which suggests that each choice we make creates two new branches of reality happening simultaneously.
Just before Thanksgiving, I visited the University of Central Arkansas where my good friend Michael Hancock and the Wind Ensemble were recording Fantasia on a Theme of Robert Schumann.
I’m excited to share that fivebyfive and I have been awarded a grant from the NY Council on the Arts to support a new commission!
On October 10, 2024, the University of Nevada Reno released “Celebrating 150 Years of the University of Nevada Reno,” an album that includes And the Cities Rise Like Dreams.
Some are new, some are not-so-new, but these are 10 pieces that have been resonating with both musicians and audiences for the past 1-2 seasons.
ORCHESTRA
In the Still Early Light was commissioned for St. Olaf College's 2025 Christmas Festival by Dr. Chung Park, conductor of the St. Olaf Orchestra. Loosely based on the Austrian carol Still, Still, Still, the music aims to capture the beauty, peace, and stillness of early morning.
Grade 4.5 Symphony Orchestra
4 minutes
Explore this work >>