Two new works

I’ve recently completed two new compositions, and expect premieres of each in the fall.

Tango-Passacaglia is for flute, violin, cello, and piano, written for my friend Elizabeth Robinson, a doctoral student flutist at Ball State University. The goal with this piece was an unpolished, raw sort of feel, with a focus more on driving rhythmic interplay than lyricism.

Rondo alla Smirk is a solo violin work for violinist/composer Piotr Szewcsyk’s Violin Futura project. It is a play on the well-known final movement of Mozart’s Piano Sonata K311 (the Rondo “alla Turca”), borrowing the Mozart rondo’s form to serve its own energetic, rock guitar-inspired material. You can learn more about Piotr and his fantastic work here.

On the docket for summer work remain settings of the song portions of Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle (for a fall production at Dordt College), a work for electric guitar and piano, and a setting of one of my wife’s poems for soprano and computer. Still in process, although without a deadline, is my Sinfonia, the first movement of which (Monument) can be heard on my listening page.

A lot to do, but it’s only June 1.