Happy August, everyone! At this time of year, a lot of us are hard at work taking stock of our upcoming schedule or planning our next “season” or academic cycle. I am very happy to announce some commissions to be written and premiered in the coming months (and years).
I am currently hard at work writing “In the Beginning was the Word” for Harmonium Choral Society and Dr. Anne Matlack. This piece will be a joyous setting of a number of different translations of the iconic verse John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.” I’ve taken the top five languages in the word by population: Mandarin, Spanish, English, Arabic and Hindi, and I am using these wildly different-sounding sentences to create a variety of festive rhythms and textures. The piece will be premiered on December 7th (8:00 pm) and 8th (3:00 pm) at Morristown United Methodist Church, NJ. Harmonium performs all manner of repertoire from Arcadelt to Bach’s St. Matthew Passion to contemporary works including my “Mater Dei” and “We Walked through the Trees” in recent months, and I’m thrilled to be working with them further.
My next sacred commission after that will be for Dr. Juan Carlos Acosta and the Choir at The Village Presbyterian Church in Rancho Santa Fe, CA. I worked with Juan on the premiere of my piece “The Devil’s Tower” with SACRA/PROFANA, and I am so excited to be working again with such a warm-hearted and skilled conductor. This time, I’ll be writing an anthem setting of Matthew 28 (the Easter story) for choir, organ and brass.
I will also be writing a new work for organ (a current favorite instrument of mine) for Carson Cooman. Carson is a composer himself and his dedication to all kinds of new music for organ is abundantly clear. The piece is tentatively scheduled for premiere in June 2020 at National Cathedral, Washington DC – more info when the time comes. (Update - recital was scheduled for June 28th, but cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic.)
This is all in addition to my new piece for the Glasgow School of Art Choir, which I can’t wait to focus on this spring. The piece will be premiered in 2021.