What a delight it was Monday evening to hear the Bel Canto Choir from Gateway High School under the direction of Chris Barletta give the premier performance of my composition, The Chariot. Knowing that the students had only a few rehearsals to learn the piece, I was quite pleased with the result. Check it out for yourself by clicking the picture below!

At the conclusion of the piece as I was walking off stage, I told Chris that I'd have another piece for the group to learn for the Gateway High School Baccalaureate. By the end of the week, I had sent him a score for a new text by John Dalles, "God, Your Golden Doorway Beckons." Unfortunately, it seems I took the text's references to "a bold challenge we can claim...at the edge of what can be" a little too seriously and wrote a piece just out of reach for the number of rehearsal left. So I found another text (also by John Dalles) and produced something a little easier: "Faith Is Like a Mystic Spirit." I went over to rehearse the choir last Friday and am now looking to the premier of this piece at the Gateway Baccalaureate on May 25.

So what happens with "God, Your Golden Doorway Beckons"? The piece is written. Will it sit in a drawer until next year? Any one else interested in giving it a go? I love the text so much that I decided to program the piece with the school choir from Holy Redeemer for the eighth grade Graduation Mass. We won't be able to sing all the harmony parts, but the melody alone (with piano accompaniment) will still provide a lovely rendition of this end of school year text. I may not have mentioned it in last week's discussion of the 5 Ws, but it's very difficult for me to write a piece of music if there is no 'When' on the calendar. Also, when the piece requires more than just one person to perform it, I never feel like it is truly finished until I've handed the score over to someone else to perform. This is when I realize what part of the music doesn't exist on paper, and what I still need to write down. Even this scaled down performance with the school choir from Holy Redeemer will give me that opportunity I need to experience the piece and satisfies that "W' that went missing on me.

Sandwiched in between the graduation pieces above happens to fall the Feast of Ascension (40 days after Easter) and the premier of "God Is Gone Up" written for Dr. Carl MaultsBy and the St. Richard’s Schola. This is the second piece I've written for St. Richard's and will make three premiers in one week! What an exciting way to bring the month of May to a close!

Wishing you a happy and safe Memorial Day and a beautiful start to your summer!

Glenn