Duration: 9’00”

Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2. 2.2.2.1. strings

Availability: Available from Universal Editions and can be purchased by clicking here.

Program Notes: Composed during the last half of 2024, Adagio is written for a medium-sized orchestra in a single movement, approximately nine minutes in length. As the title suggests, this music is deliberative and marked with a slow tempo. The conductor’s directive is “slowly, but with conviction”. Its orchestra forces make use of the woodwind, brass, and string sections without percussion, piano, or harp. Although it does not have a specific theme or story line, it might nevertheless be considered programmatic, as the work does have an arc and flow that evolves in time. The musical material first heard at the beginning of the score in the strings, does dramatically unfold in the woodwind and brass sections, and finally returns at the end of the piece with a different tonal center.

Duration: 8’00”

Instrumentation: strings

Availability: Available from Universal Editions and can be purchased by clicking here.

Program Notes: Author Brian Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics, and the director of Columbia University’s Center for Theoretical Physics. From his book “Until the End of Time” he explains: “When we look up at the night sky we see stars as they were many thousands of years ago. Using powerful telescopes, we see far more distant astronomical objects as they were millions or billions of years ago. Some of these astronomical sources may have long since died, and yet we continue to see them because the light they long ago emitted is still in transit. Light provides an illusion of presence.” I thought of this passage often while composing this score.

First Performance: Feb 11, 2024, by the Four Seasons Chamber Orchestra with Eric Scheider (conducting), Grace Lutheran Church, Hendersonville NC

Duration: 7’00”

Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2 4.2.2.1 timp strings

Availability: Available from Universal Editions and can be purchased by clicking here.

Program Notes: After several previous trips to the area of western North Carolina, in mid-2019 I relocated from Miami to Asheville. After this move, and while often driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway, I am always struck by the majestic beauty and grandeur of the ancient Appalachian mountain ranges. This became the source of inspiration to compose The Blue Mountains.

Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2 2.2.2.1 strings (for youth orchestra)

Availability: Please contact the composer directly by clicking here.

Program Notes: While working to develop new musical material for a particular composition, I will often begin to identify alternate possibilities for the material. It could be for other instrumentation entirely, or for a work of larger (or even smaller) scope in design, proportion, or textural density. This was my experience with “Colors of a Dream”. Years earlier I had composed four very short, lyrical, and tonal pieces for clarinet, oboe, violin, and harpsichord. As time passed I began to consider re-working the material of these four pieces for a much larger ensemble. “Colors of a Dream” is the second deployment for youth orchestra of one of these four previous compositions.

Duration: 7’00”

Instrumentation: string orchestra

Availability: Please contact the composer directly by clicking here.

Duration: 4′ 30″

Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2 2.2.2.1 strings (for youth orchestra)

Availability: Please contact the composer directly by clicking here.

Program Notes: While working to develop new musical material for a particular composition, I will often begin to identify alternate possibilities for the material. It could be for other instrumentation entirely, or for a work of larger (or even smaller) scope in design, proportion, or textural density. This was my experience with “An American Folk Dance”. Years earlier I had composed four very short, lyrical, and tonal pieces for clarinet, oboe, violin, and harpsichord. As time passed I began to consider re-working the material of these four pieces for a much larger ensemble. “An American Folk Dance” is the first deployment for youth orchestra of one of these four previous compositions.

Duration: 11′ 30″

Instrumentation: flute, string orchestra, harp (or piano)

Alternate Versions: flute, piano (2006); alto flute, piano (2013)

Availability: Available from Universal Editions and can be purchased by clicking here.

You may purchase assets for this work at SheetMusicPlus.com by clicking the following links:

Full Score | Set of Parts

Recordings: no commercial recording (archival recording available for perusal)

Program Notes: While working on Summer Nights Passing I reached my fiftieth year. For most people (those fortunate enough to reach it), this is a milestone occasion, among many others. Naturally this event caused me to allow for greater reflection on my life. (What had I been doing all those years, where was I now, and where am I headed ?) For me, this inner reflection caused a healthy chance for nostalgia and sentiment as my thoughts turned back to a much simpler period in my life. For many people I believe, our fondest memories may come from early childhood as we are just beginning to grow. This presumes of course, that one is growing in a stable, secure, and loving environment at home. I was. In the early to mid 1960’s I was 6 to 8 years old. I do remember where I was, and what I was doing, when all the world learned of the assassination of President Kennedy. However, at that young age I was unable to grasp anything beyond the very superficial understanding of that single event. How could I comprehend the political and ideological positing of Cold War policies that held the world in a vice-grip. How could I understand the meaning and significance of some Wall built in a strange place called Berlin. And how could I ever hope to understand the meaning and significance of names, places, and phrases like Cuban Missile Crisis, nuclear annihilation, Castro, Khrushchev, or Bay of Pigs. Where in the world was Cuba? And what was Korea? What did I care? I was only a kid, very young, and of much greater importance were the endlessly euphoric possibilities of the hot summer nights growing up in northwest Ohio. They would begin just around dusk, and last until my mother began calling for me to come home after several hours of darkness. After already spending the entire day outside with my friends, playing, running, jumping, wrestling, climbing, and riding bikes, we would continue on still, but now, around dusk, we could roll in the cool grass, and chase after fireflies too. It was chasing the fireflies that I remember most. There was no past then, and the future was not significant …. there was just right now, and hundreds of fireflies to chase. Only now do I understand how fleetingly and quickly were my very few, short, and cherished Summer Nights Passing, and how I cannot ever return completely to that time in body, mind, or spirit. Musically, the material of Summer Nights Passing is derived from an earlier work for clarinet and piano trio entitled Insensible Choices. This material is further developed and re-worked to present the music itself in a venue of larger scale and greater scope. However the depth of personal meaning of this composition, as described above, would become greatly altered as my progress on it continued.

First Performance: Premiere by the New Score Chamber Orchestra in Orlando Florida on September 30, 2012, at Benoit Glazer’s “Lake Timucua” Concert Series, with Michael J. Garasi (conducting) and Tammy Phillips (flute)

Duration: 13′ 30″

Instrumentation: 2.2(+bcl).2.2(+cbsn) 4.2.2.1 piano, harp timp, perc(3) strings

Availability: Please contact the composer directly by clicking here.

Program Notes: Unbeknown to me while working on Earth Crosser, the real source of my inspiration came indirectly from the renowned geologist/astronomer Gene Shoemaker. His life’s work led him to develop the theory that impact craters on the surface of both the Moon and Earth were caused by asteroidal objects. Shoemaker’s work eventually evolved into the study of the astronomical objects themselves, adding significantly to the science of near-earth objects (NEO). When these objects orbit our sun in a trajectory close to the Earth’s, they are known as “Near Earth Objects”. When the trajectories cross at the same point as Earth’s trajectory, the object becomes an “Earth Crosser”. I have long held a morbid fascination of this inevitable calamity, even before the rise in popularity of the apocalyptic, end-of-the-world movies coming out of Hollywood. The destructive force of such an encounter with a large object however, should the earth ever again endure such a fate, would have implications on a global scale. Earth Crosser is not intended to be a moment-by-moment musical rendering of such a catastrophe, but rather a collection of musical thoughts loosely inspired by, and responsive to, such an event. Earth Crosser is composed of three main sections. The first is dominated by percussion, harp, marimba, piano, and sustained strings. The second by the brass and strings. The third and final section is a forum for solo players from the orchestra. The pitch material of Earth Crosser is largely derived from a 12-note sequence accompanied by some tertian harmonic structures. This 12-note sequence can be heard for the first time in it’s complete form around mm. 85-86 in the bass clarinet and bassoons.

Duration: 11′ 30″

Instrumentation: string orchestra

Availability: Please contact the composer directly by clicking here.

Program Notes: The musical material of Atonement was developed from a single brief passage borrowed from an earlier work of mine for double bass and piano (Contraforte). However, this piece would probably have never been written were it not for the influence of the beautifully lyrical Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber. Upon my first hearing of this darkly profound composition (even at a time when my own writing seemed much more dissonant and abstract), I knew I would someday compose a work of my own for string orchestra.

Duration: 5′ 30″

Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2 2.2.1.1 strings (for youth orchestra)

Availability: Available from Universal Editions and can be purchased by clicking here.

Recordings: no commercial recording (archival recording available for perusal)

First Performance: Premiere by the Old Post Road Orchestra in Ludlow MA on Nov 11 & 12, 2000 (Neal Schermerhorn, conducting); later aired on the Wilbraham Public Broadcast (PBS) affiliate station.

Other Performances:

The Wooster Youth Symphony, Wooster, Ohio (Eric Benjamin, conducting) on Dec 4, 2010

The Mount Holyoke Symphony Orchestra (Eric Benjamin, conducting) on March 11, 2007

The Canton Youth Orchestra (Eric Benjamin, conducting)

The Akron Youth Symphony at E.J. Thomas Hall, Akron, Ohio (Eric Benjamin, conducting) on May 5, 2002

The 36th SCI Nat’l Conference by the Akron Youth Symphony at Guzzetta Recital Hall, Akron, Ohio (Eric Benjamin, conducting) on April 20, 2002

Duration: 15′ 00″

Instrumentation: 2.2.2.1 2.2.1.0 strings

Availability: Please contact the composer directly by clicking here.

First Performance: A reading session of selected works by Florida composers by The Florida Symphony (June 1988).