TBA

Infinity

Shooting stars symbolize good luck, change or big event is coming towards your life, or it can also be a symbol of endings and beginnings. Shooting stars are actually one of the most diverse omens we have throughout our history. Shooting star symbolizes a brief fleeting moment in one's life just like the brief wonder of seeing a shooting star race across the night sky. They can also be a symbol of reaching one's ultimate destiny.

Shooting stars, asteroids, and the movement of the heavenly bodies in the night sky have always fascinated humans. Some cultures have always and strong beliefs and superstitions in the meaning of shooting stars. Traditional shooting stars also meant a new birth and changes in one's life and also a wish for a better life.

With Infinity I wanted to create the sense of shooting stars flying through the infinite playground known as space. As the piece begins, the world of space is filled with stars running through the skies. Throughout the piece, the shooting stars go through many different scenarios both dark and light until finally at the end of the piece the stars – with their bright colors and lights – flash across the sky with spectacular grandeur.

- Program Note by composer

Suite Francaise

For a long time I have had the idea of writing a composition fit for high school purposes, and this was the result. In the bands, orchestras, and choirs of American high schools, colleges and universities where the youth of the nation be found, it is obvious that they need music of their time, not too difficult to perform, but nevertheless keeping the characteristic idiom of the composer.

The five parts of this suite are named after French Provinces, the very ones in which the American and Allied armies fought together with the French underground of the liberation of my country: Normandy, Brittany, Ile-de-France (of which Paris is the center), Alsace-Lorraine, and Provence (my birthplace).

I used some folk tunes of these provinces. I wanted the young American to hear the popular melodies of those parts of France where their fathers and brothers fought to defeat the German invaders, who in less than seventy years have brought war, destruction, cruelty, torture, and murder three times to the peaceful and democratic people of France."

- Program Note by composer

Courtly Airs and Dances

Courtly Airs and Dances is a suite of Renaissance dances which were characteristic to five European countries during the 1500s. Three of the dances (Basse Dance, Pavane, and Allemande) are meant to emulate the music of Claude Gervaise by drawing on the style of his music as well as the characteristics of other compositions from that period. The festival opens with a fanfare-like Intrada followed by the Basse Danse (France), Pavane (England), Saltarello (Italy), Sarabande (Spain), and Allemande (Germany).

The work was commissioned by the Hill Country Middle School Band from Austin, Texas, Cheryl Floyd, director.

- Program Note by composer

Clutch!

I have visceral childhood memories of going to the Belle Isle Indy car races in Detroit with my Dad. The smell of high-octane racing fuel, burning rubber, domestic beer, feeling the scorching hot summer sun bouncing off the asphalt. The pitch-bending sounds of the Formula One cars screaming past us at insane speeds, the roar of the crowd at the checkered flag. Wildly dangerous, every boundary being tested, all for a chance at the winner's circle.

This competitive spirit inspired me to write a fanfare that pushes the boundaries of tempo, range & technical demand, and gives the conductor, performers, and listener a nice adrenaline rush too. I also wanted to push myself to write the most exciting wildly chaotic music I could imagine.

Fast. Loud. And a bit reckless.

- Program Note by composer