Present Activity:
UPDATE on my opera in progress:
I have completed the larger creative tasks of my two-hour opera, Polly, Pretty Polly, based on the 200-year old murder-ballad folksong. It has been very labor intensive, but an enjoyable project. It is now orchestrated and spread out on about 500 pages. I do believe that this is one of my very best compositions, no doubt the largest. Much mechanical work is yet to be done. The individual parts — oh, I don’t want to think of that at the moment!
Like the murder ballad “Pretty Polly” on which this opera is based, Polly, Pretty Polly is about the betrayal of trust; more specifically, both the opera and ballad deal with the thematic of violence against women (as relevant today as yesterday).
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My scores are on view at the Music and Dance Library; School of Music; Ohio State University; Columbus, Ohio
LISTEN
THE
SOUND
FLOWS
OBJECTIVE
I have been using folk materials in my compositions since 1969 and my objective has always been to artfully fuse these elements 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
PROFESSIONAL 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.