Music directors should be aware of the variety of new music that I am making available.
Any music director faces the dreaded summer, that time of year when he or she is faced with newly planning the coming season's programs. And every composer always dreads the same time of year, having to go with hat in hand to music directors to ask if they would like to perform new music. I have a great deal of experience in hearing directors say they'll keep my music in mind, only then to program Mozart or Brahms or Verdi. It is a sad fact that listeners have come to rely on the era between Bach and Pulenc for the best of their repertoire. But I believe that, to get the younger generation more involved in making music, one must also appeal to them with good music written by people their age.
I have released in the last month a great deal of music of every genre. The biggest project I've been working on in the last decade has been an opera, Der Mashgiahs Meshüges ("The Supervisor's Madness"), and I have also been writing a great deal of music for the arpeggione. But mostly, over the last few years, I have been a composer of choral music. Good, modal choral music on a variety of subjects in a variety of languages. I have set many obscure texts from the Bible in its original Hebrew. I have set poetry by Satie in French, and Shakespeare in English. And I have of course added other, more modern writers to my repertoire, such as Col. Alfred Worden (in two of the pieces from the collection The Alan Bean Gallery), and my own words as well.
I highly recommend this music - not just the choral numbers, but the instrumental ones as well - for any music director who is interested in cultivating newer repertoire, and a healthier relationship with listeners and the face of music today. Do enjoy the music, and come back again.