Present Activity:

UPDATE on my opera:    

My two-hour opera, Polly, Pretty Polly, based on the 300-year old murder-ballad of Pretty Polly has been completed and sent out to be evaluated for performance.  However, there is a real backlog due to the pandemic, though opera companies are beginning to produce.  

The libretto of the opera, by best-selling-author Sena Jeter Naslund, is precise, evocative, and engaging in its handling of the flow of the narrative.  The larger picture:  Act 1, The woodland introduction of five very different characters, each with blossoming hopes or stealthy plans,  Act 2, The convergence of the characters and villagers at a dance; Polly’s disappearance; [Intermission]  Act 3, In the nighttime woods, the searching for, seduction, and murder of Polly, Act 4, The court in the woods where Willie is tried for the murder of Pretty Polly, plus a Coda.

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A select number of my scores are on view at the Music and Dance Library; School of Music; Ohio State University; Columbus, Ohio

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Sena Naslund and I are now working on our next opera project.    

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Presently, I am working over an earlier composition written in 1980.  I am going to rename it “Capriccio for Violin and Orchestra.”

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LISTEN

THE

SOUND

FLOWS

OBJECTIVE

I have been using folk materials in my compositions since 1969 and my objective has always been to fuse these elements artfully into a modern sound fabric.

My Performance Conductors:

Gianluigi Gelmetti, Massimo Pradella, Oleg Kovalenko, Gerhard Samuel, Lukas Foss, Lawrence Foster, Michael Morgan, Kenneth Jean, Paul Polivnick, Gunther Schuller, Steven Smith, Sydney Hodkinson, Stewart Robertson, Andrew Davis, Edwin London, John McL. Williams

My Performance ORCHESTRAS:

Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Louisville Orchestra,  Vermont Symphony Orchestra,  Richmond (VA) Symphony,  Atlantic Classical Orchestra,  Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra,  Long Beach Symphony,  Civic Orchestra of Chicago,  Alabama Symphony Orchestra,  Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra,  Brooklyn Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra,  Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Radiotelevisione Italiana Orchestra of Rome, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, Philharmonic Orchestra of Monte Carlo.