Works

This work was commissioned and premiered by the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra (Mariusz Smolij, Music Director) for its 25th anniversary. Each of the four movements is based on an old Cajun folk song from the Alan Lomax recordings of 1934.

See Old Cajun Songs below for a piano reduction of two movements.

My Four Cajun Songs for voice and orchestra was commissioned by the Epsilon Pi chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota and the Upsilon Phi chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia at Truman State University. The commission resulted from my orchestra piece, Filé, winning the Truman State University/MACRO Society 2005 Composition Competition. It was premiered at Truman State in 2005.

See Three Cajun Songs below for a piano reduction of three movements.

Three Romances is an orchestral arrangement of pieces for solo piano by the 19th century pianist and composer Clara Schumann (1819-1896). The three pieces span a time period from her days as a young touring piano virtuoso (the opening movement) to one of her last published compositions (the second movement). The Prelude of the final movement was composed during the time that she and her husband Robert were studying the fugues of J.S. Bach.

Simple Serenades was composed in 2013 for Gabriel Beavers, Professor of Bassoon at the University of Miami. The title reflects the fact that each movement emphasizes the lyrical qualities of the bassoon.

I have long believed that a musical composition is a personal communication between the composer and each individual listener. The composer is saying something specific to the listener that might be interpreted as exciting, dull, engrossing, tedious, moving, or simply anodyne — much like the conversations we have with each other every day. Although the title of each “story” (“Barcelona”, “Berceuse”, “Caracas”) alludes to a different culture, no attempt has been made to evoke local music. Each story has something to say — exactly what that is isn’t important. How each listener responds to the tales is all that matters.

In Plain Air is a one-movement fantasy based on a lyrical melody I decided not to use in the slow movement of my Divertimento for flute and viola. After the lyrical beginning, a fast section expands on the melody. In Plain Air was premiered by the Shreveport Symphony (Michael Butterman, Music Director) in 2015.

The word “filé” has two meanings for the composer. Most people from south Louisiana will know that filé is ground sassafras and that it is used as a seasoning in gumbo. The word also means “spun” or “thread”—a perfect allusion to the “spinning out” of the work’s opening chord to create the various motives and melodies found in this piece.

Filé was premiered by the Baton Rouge Symphony (Timothy Muffitt, Music Director) in November of 2003. It was the winner of the 2005 Truman State University/MACRO Society Composers Competition.

The first movement, “Berceuse pour la Nouvelle-Orléans”, is a lullaby for a damaged New Orleans. The second movement, “Passacaglia”, is a set of variations on a 6-1/2 beat bass line.

A piano reduction of this concerto can be found above under Chamber Music.

Piano reduction of orchestral version. Orchestral version is available on rental (see below under the Orchestral section).

Clara is based on excerpts of music by the 19th-century pianist and composer Clara Schumann (1819-1896), wife of Robert Schumann (1810-1856). Melodies and excerpts of chord progressions from three of her compositions are used: the Piano Concerto (1833-1836), Valses Romantiques (for solo piano, 1835), and the late Marsch (for piano four-hands, 1879). My intent in this piece was not to arrange Clara’s music, but to reimagine it in a way that places her wonderful ideas in a new and different context. Clara was premiered by the Baton Rouge Symphony (Timothy Muffitt, Music Director) in 2016.

Canray was commissioned by the Louisiana Sinfonietta and makes use of common fiddling techniques found in the music of south Louisiana Cajuns. The work uses these fiddling techniques as the basis for a new composition which only briefly alludes to one Cajun/Creole melody.