Music from the opera Little Women for percussion, piano, celesta, and strings. Commissioned by Eclipse Chamber Orchestra: revised version introduced by Eclipse Chamber Orchestra at The George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, VA. in October 2007. Sylvia Alimena, conductor.
A three-part chamber music piece for baritone and string quartet based on Billy Collins' original poem. Premiered by Thomas Hampson and the Jupiter Quartet.
August Music is a brief concertino, in three movements, for two flutes and string quartet, which has now subsequently been arranged for two flutes and string orchestra.
Avow is scored for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, bass-baritone, and either piano or chamber orchestra, and is dedicated with respect and gratitude to Jonathan Sheffer: it was introduced by Eos Orchestra in New York in May 1999.
In this original story, Claus is a prince of an Elven realm in the far north, son of a conflicted Queen sorceress and a King vanished under mysterious circumstances.
For double SATB choir, soprano solo, and piano. Commissioned and introduced by Choral Arts Society of Washington at the Kennedy Center, June 2000: Norman Scribner, Music Director.
Commissioned by The National Symphony Orchestra: introduced by Dotian Levalier, harpist, and The National Symphony at The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. in June 2007. Leonard Slatkin, conductor.
For SSAA choir and piano or chamber ensemble (piano, violoncello, two clarinets.) Poems by Emily Dickinson. Commissioned and introduced by The Young People’s Chorus of New York at the Society for Ethical Culture, New York, N.Y., April 2006; Francisco Nuñez, music director.
For unaccompanied SATB choir. Poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Commissioned and introduced by the Gregg Smith Singers in 2009.
“HERE” began life as a piece for SATB chorus and piano, but—only because there was something so bravura, so glamourous about it, that suggested an individual, rather than a group—I was never quite convinced that it wasn’t a solo piece. Then Opera America asked for a contribution to their songbook celebrating the opening of the National Opera Center: apparently life is full of second chances. The rest, if not history, is a setting for baritone and piano: Jesse Blumberg and Djordje Nesic sang, and played, the first recording.
I discovered this Marcus Argentarius poem while writing the libretto for Lysistrata; it had no place in that opera, but its exuberant fatalism stayed with me, so I leapt at the chance to score it for SATB choir and piano when Harold Rosenbaum and his New York Virtuoso Singers invited me to join his 25 X 25 anniversary recording.
Last Year's four-movement narrative speaks to anxieties surrounding the ever-increasing threats of climate change, while also paying homage to Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Co-commissioned by American Composers Orchestra, New Century Chamber Orchestra, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and ROCO.
Poems by Emily Dickinson: text by Richard Rodriguez. Commissioned by Eclipse Chamber Orchestra: revised version introduced by Emily Pulley, soprano, Richard Kleinfeldt, narrator, and Eclipse Chamber Orchestra at The George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, VA. in May 2007. Sylvia Alimena, conductor.
Mark Adamo's first opera written to his own libretto based on Louisa May Alcott's 1868-69 tale of growing up in New England after the American Civil War.
This iconic comedy, unveiled in 411 B.C.E., eyes the women of Athens and Sparta, disgusted by an endless, pointless war, who barricade themselves in the Athenian treasury and swear a sanction on sex until their men make peace.
Three folksongs arranged for soprano or mezzo-soprano solo and SATB choir. Commissioned and introduced by the Congressional Chorus of the United States, Hart Building Atrium Concerts, Michael Patterson, music director.
For double SATB choir. Translation by Stephen Mitchell of verses from the Tao te Ching. Commissioned and introduced by The Dale Warland Singers in Minneapolis, MN, June 2000: Dale Warland, Music Director. Recorded by Esoterics in May 2008: Eric Banks, music director.
Commissioned by New York City Opera: introduced by New York City Opera as part of their performances of Lysistrata, or The Nude Goddess at Lincoln Center in March-April 2006. George Manahan, conductor.
A pastiche nestled inside a portrait, this miniature for piano imagines Leonard Bernstein interrupting an antic and digressive conversation with a friend to play through the first draft of an imagined birthday piece for his colleague Jennie Tourel, the mezzo-soprano who introduced his song cycles “I Hate Music!” and “La Bonne Cuisine.” Phone Call and Improvisation is dedicated, with affection and gratitude, to Lara Downes, who commissioned the piece and introduced it at CUNY’s Bernstein Marathon at Elebash Hall on December 2nd, 2017.
For unaccompanied SATB choir. Poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Commissioned and introduced by the Paul Hill Chorale in 1996: performed and recorded in November 2009 by Octarium: Krista Lang Blackwood, music director.
Orchestral piece written for the Cabrillo Music Festival to celebrate the great Marin Alsop‘s twentieth year as leader of the festival.
An arrangement of the central slow movement of Four Angels, for harp and string quintet.
I arranged this for Craig Hella Johnson and his peerless Conspirare when they had the inspired idea to commission new arrangements of some of the African-American spiritual repertoire for concerts in 2010.
Orchestral arrangement of Queen Sophine’s climactic aria from 'Becoming Santa Claus.'
