New "Festival Music" Recording [Video]

Check out this great new recording of Festival Music, performed by members of the Eastman Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Mark Scatterday.

Video Recording of "Vocalise" - Andrea Venet, Marimba & Voice

Check out this wonderful video of Andrea Venet performing my new work “Vocalise” for singing marimbist. Andrea commissioned the piece earlier this year and premiered it this fall at the University of North Florida.

Saxophone Quartet No. 2 to be Recorded by the Iridium Saxophone Quartet on the Blue Griffin Label

Exciting news! My Saxophone Quartet No. 2: Chant will be recorded this coming May by the Iridium Saxophone Quartet.  The CD release is planned for Fall 2016 on the Blue Griffin Label.  Stay tuned!

2015: A Year in Review

Happy New Year's Eve! As 2015 comes to a close, I'm spending a little time looking back on the past 12 months and remembering everything that happened this year. I don't often share behind-the-scenes posts, but today, I thought it might be fun to share a few of my favorite things from 2015.

Enjoy!

HIGHLIGHTS

2015 was a big year for me, personally and professionally. My wife and I bought our first home in Rochester, NY this summer (a 1920 Colonial) and we're slowly learning how to be homeowners (and how to fix things!).

On a professional note, it was an honor to have my music performed at a number of all-state conferences and honor band festivals in New York, South Carolina, Kansas, Oklahoma, Illinois, Hawaii, and Kentucky. In addition, I was thrilled to have my music performed at the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE) conference in July and by the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) All-National Honor Band at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville in October.

I attended the Chamber Music America (CMA) conference in NYC in January and helped organize the pre-conference day, "How to Succeed in a Changing Musical World," hosted by Eastman's Paul R. Judy Center for Applied Research. We had a great time at the conference and enjoyed exploring Times Square for a few days!

RESIDENCIES

I had the pleasure of working with several great high school and college bands this year (and a church choir, or two!), with residencies, guest rehearsals, and Skype sessions at Nazareth College, Augustana University, Liverpool High School, Trinity Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Arkansas Tech Summer Band Festival, and Canandaigua Academy, among others.

PERFORMANCES

As a composer, the best part of my job is when people play (or sing) my music. This year, I counted over 65 performances in 18 states (and I know I'm missing some! Side note: I'd love to include your performance on my events calendar! Just fill out this form).

PUBLICATIONS

As most of you know, I self-publish the majority of my work, but over the past few years, I've started working with a few publishers for some of my choral and chamber music. This year, I had five pieces accepted for publication with Colla Voce, Augsburg Fortress, and Keyboard Percussion Publications:

- Speaking Love - An Hour of Hallowed Peace - Wake, O My Soul - Filled With His Voice - Chorale Variations

COMMISSIONS/NEW PIECES

It was a busy writing year for me, with two new pieces for band (Vermont State Fair and River Town Jubilee), two pieces for orchestra (Winter Song and Vermont State Fair), a new chamber version of "A Country Boy in Winter" (from Alcott Songs), and my second song cycle (New England Folk Songs).

P.S. Thinking about a commission for the 2016-2017 year? Let's talk!

As always, thanks for your continued encouragement and support of my music. Cheers to 2016!

SD

New England Folk Songs: Choosing Texts

The past few months I have been writing a new set of songs based on wonderful texts by Louisa May Alcott, Emily Dickinson, and Sarah Orne Jewett. My first song cycle, Alcott Songs, features a collection of texts by Louisa May Alcott that I arranged into what seems like a summer day - from morning to night.  I like the idea of having some sort of narrative like this within the cycle, and so for this cycle I decided to use the narrative of the seasons.  Being from New England, I wanted to highlight the beautiful seasons in the region with texts by New England poets.

And so the search for texts began. 

Whenever I look for new texts, I am constantly thinking about whether or not the work is in the public domain, and therefore whether or not I need permission to set the text to music.  If the text is not in the public domain, you must contact the copyright holder for the text, request permission, and receive permission before moving forward.  If the text is in the public domain then you do not need permission to set the text.

There are a couple of really great websites with public domain material - Project Gutenberg and archive.org.  Both of these sites let you see digitized or HTML text versions of complete texts that are often in the public domain.

When I first started searching for texts for this cycle, I did some quick internet searches for New England poets who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries.  One of the poets I discovered was Sarah Orne Jewett.  I found much of her poetry to be beautifully crafted, very creative, and full of imagination.  I was drawn to a number of her poems, and found several that seemed to focus on the seasons.  Perfect!  I also found a number of poems related to the seasons by 19th century New England poet, Emily Dickinson.

Last year, I came across a poem of Emily Dickinson that I thought would be perfect for this project.  But, as I dug into the research, I learned that although Dickinson lived in the 19th century, much of her poetry was not published until well after her death, in the early and mid twentieth century.  So, even though the works were written in the 19th century, many were published after 1923, and therefore, still under copyright.

Since Harvard University Press (HUP) controls all the permissions for Emily Dickinson’s works, I completed their online permission request form (here, for those of you who are interested).  On the HUP site, it says it may take them up to 10 weeks to respond to your request.  Indeed, it was 10 weeks before I heard back, but thankfully, they approved my request.  I will have to pay HUP a percentage of all the income I receive from this work, but I am excited to include Emily Dickinson's work in this cycle!

In addition to the Emily Dickinson poem, I chose four other texts for the cycle - three by Sarah Orne Jewett and one by Louisa May Alcott.  Having just researched Louisa May Alcott’s work in the past couple of years for Alcott Songs, I found a perfect seasonal text to open the cycle.  The poem paints a picture of a snow-covered seed breaking through the ground and blooming into a spring flower.  This poem was published as part of the short story "The Frost King and How the Fairies Conquered Him," in a collection called Lulu's Library, Volume II.  Public domain! Excellent.

The three poems by Jewett that I chose to include in the cycle are "Boat Song," "Top of the Hill," and "A Country Boy in Winter."  "Boat Song" is a captivating poem about a starlit summer evening, "Top of the Hill" is a wonderful reflection on the New England autumn, and "A Country Boy in Winter" is a fun, lighthearted poem that makes winter sound a bit warmer and cozier.

All three of these works were published prior to 1923 - two of them appear in Verses 1916, which you can view on archive.org.  "A Country Boy in Winter" was published in Harpers Young People magazine in 1882.  With a little Google searching, I found a digitized version of the actual magazine on Google Books (see it here).  The internet is truly amazing sometimes!

The cycle begins with the Louisa May Alcott poem and the transition from winter to spring.  Second is the Emily Dickinson text - a fun, springtime adventure involving bees, frogs, and birds.  Third is Jewett’s “Boat Song” to give us a picture-perfect summer evening.  Fourth is Jewett’s “Top of the Hill” to provide a colorful and reflective autumn portrait.  The last song in the cycle sets Jewett’s “A Country Boy in Winter,” closing the work with a fun and witty wintertime adventure!

See the score and preorder your copy of New England Folk Songs here.  The music will be ready to ship by the end of April!

New Song Cycle for Medium Voice and Piano: New England Folk Songs

Introducing my newest song cycle, New England Folk Songs!  In this cycle, I explore the New England seasons with texts penned by New England poets.  Written for medium voice and piano, the cycle takes you through all four New England seasons through the lenses of 19th/early 20th century poets Louisa May Alcott, Emily Dickinson, and Sarah Orne Jewett.  Read more about the work, see the score, and order online here.

New Publications Available!

I'm pleased to share that three of my works recently accepted for publication are now available directly from the publishers: Augsburg Fortress, Colla Voce Music, and Keyboard Percussion Publications.

• Chorale Variations, commissioned by the percussion duo Escape X, is now available from Keyboard Percussion Publications here.
• Speaking Love, a Christmas Carol for SATB Choir and Piano is now available from Colla Voce Music here.
• Filled With His Voice, (SATB+piano+alto sax) commissioned by the Bethel College Concert Choir directed by Dr. William Eash, is now available in the St. Olaf Choral Series of Augsburg Fortress here.