Now that summer is here, I finally have time to devote to composition. So at long last I've posted all three movements of the music I composed last summer. The work is a concerto for oboe and small orchestra. Brian Charles, a Julliard-trained oboist and the proprietor of Charles Double Reed Company premiered the piece last October along with the Mountain Top Music Center Community Orchestra under the direction of Christopher Nourse.
Brian is a classical musician with a wide range of musical interests—one of which is improvisation. For this reason, I made room for improvisation in the cadenza section. The motif that runs through the first movement was inspired by a friend of mine's description of water dripping into a bucket on a cool summer morning in Maine. While I don't think of the work as completely programmatic, perhaps that idea gives the listener a place from which to consider the music.
I'm hoping there are other oboists and other orchestras who might like to perform the piece. I'd be happy to supply parts and audio files for musicians to peruse. I also created a piano reduction of the orchestral part to allow for a wider range of performance possibilities. Please contact me by e-mail if you are interested in performing the work.
