Clarinet Sonata Commissioning Project

Every little bit helps!

The Calculus of Division

NEW

A terrifying new song based in a universe where millipedes are smart but centipedes are smarter.

Written for Quarry Project soprano, Areli Mendoza-Pannone.

Quarry Songs
Now Available

Quarry Songs is a four-song cycle for soprano, baritone, and piano. They are songs of witness. Based on four poems: 

• Museum of Stones by Carolyn Forché (poet, translator, essayist and human rights activist); 

• Normal by Reginald Harris (Poetry in the Branches Coordinator for Poets House in New York City and Contributor to LGBTQ America Today: An Encyclopedia); 

• Hammering on Rocks by Joseph Ross (author of four books of poetry including Raising King, which explores the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr.); and 

• My Body Holds Stones by Laura Tohe (Navajo Nation Poet Laureate and Professor Emerita with Distinction from Arizona State University). 

The poems represent varied American perspectives of the artifacts of human existence and the trajectory of our culture(s), the human capacity to grow numb to suffering, the weight and cost of identity—self imposed and projected—on ourselves, our nation, and our children. I chose poets whose voices represent not only suppressed perspectives but also the voices of Americans born of privilege, willing to use the power of art to focus the readers’ minds on the rough truths of our shared history as Americans. Each poet has given their enthusiastic permission for their poems to be set to music.

Variants and Strains Premier!

If you'll be at the NFA convention, or in the Chicago area on Saturday, August 13 at 10:15 am, please come check out our world premier by this wonderful group!

Oot-kwa-tah Premier!

M45 is the Messier catalog number for an open star cluster better known as the Pleiades. Oot-kwa-tah is dedicated to Schenectady County Community College on the forty-fifth anniversary of the college’s establishment as part of the State University of New York. The college sits on land that was once part of the Mohawk nation of the Iroquois Confederacy. Oot-kwa-tah is inspired by the Iroquois legend of M45, the Pleiades star cluster.

The Iroquois tell a story about seven children who met each day and danced for hours at a time instead of doing chores.

An old man appeared to them one day as they danced. He shone magnificently like silver and was clad from head to toe in brilliant white feathers. The old man warned them to stop dancing lest something terrible happen to them.
Ignoring the old man’s warning and growing more and more hungry and lightheaded the children began to rise into the air. “If only they had listened to me,” the old man thought. As the children’s parents gathered, one little boy heard his father’s voice below. The little boy looked down and saw his father. At that instant he fell back to earth. The other children continued to float higher and higher into the sky to become the Pleiades star cluster.
The Iroquois call them Oot-kwa-tah and are reminded of these reckless children each time they see a falling star.

This concert also features William Sutton on euphonium and eleven area high school students joining the CRWE for their annual side-by-side concert.

PROGRAM
Early Light (1995, 1999)                                            Carolyn Bremer
Oot-kwa-tah (2014, 2019)                                           Brett L. Wery
Fantasia di Falcone (2005)                                            James Curnow
William Sutton, euphonium
William Byrd Suite (1924, 1960)                                  Gordon Jacob
Featuring Students of the Side-by-Side Program

A Tonal Lexicon for Flute

View Samples from A Tonal Lexicon for Flute

Of our Father’s Silent Night

No One is Alone by Stephen Sondheim

Clef and Key Studies Reviewed

An Avaloch Divertimento

An Avaloch Divertimento was begun—in fact the first two movements were completed—at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute in New Hampshire. Avaloch or Abhlach, is from the old Irish word meaning, “place of the apple trees.” The sacred Isle of the Apple Trees, Avalon—where Arthur, King of the Britons, was taken to be healed of his dreadful wounds—takes its name from this ancient word. Avaloch Farm Music Institute (AFMI) in New Hampshire is also a magical place where chamber music groups come to work and create in an atmosphere free from the distractions of everyday life. In the summer of 2021 I had the pleasure and honor of being a resident of AFMI along with Areli Mendoza-Pannone, Robert Frazier, and Mark Evans as we work-shopped my song cycle, Quarry Songs. Areli, Bobby, and Mark had to go back to the real world half way through the residency, leaving me at AFMI to begin work on An Avaloch Divertimento.

 The first movement is an Aubade, which are traditionally morning love songs—as opposed to evening love songs or serenades. In the seventeenth century aubades became associated with instrumental works depicting sunrises. It is this sense of the word that is used here, complete with a bird-song oboe cadenza.

 Pippin takes its name from a variety of apple. While at AFMI I would take afternoon walks through the nearby apple orchard to beautiful Walker Pond. It was on one of these walks that I came up with the first draft of the tune used in the central fughetta of the movement. The word, “pippin” is also included in Carolyn Forché’s poem, The Museum of Stones, which I had set as the final movement of Quarry Songs.

 The final movement, Amhrán, means “song” in Irish and is a simple song form with three interwoven themes that emulate the Irish Bodhran (frame drum), fiddle, and singer.

 Many thanks to Board Chair, Alfred Tauber, Artistic Director, Deborah Sherr, and Operations Director, Hannah Landes and the whole AFMI staff for creating such a wonderful refuge for musicians to work, learn, and create.

String Quartet Wins Classic Pure Vienna Competition

Based in Vienna, Austria, Classic Pure Vienna is a competition that aims to support new composers and young musicians of our time worldwide. The competition is organized by Culture Meeting Point. Established in 1995, Culture Meeting Point works to promote understanding and tolerance among cultures.

Avaloch Farm Music Institute Residency

August 15- August 29, Avaloch Farm Music Institute, New Hampshire

I am thrilled to announce that I have been granted a residency beginning August 15 at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute in New Hampshire! I will be joined by my close friend and long time musical partner, Mark Evans as he teams up with young, emerging artists, Areli Mendoza-Pannone and Robert Frazier. 

 At the center of our collaboration is the development of a new composition, Quarry Songs which will have their premiere in the Capital District in early September. My hope for the creation of this four-song cycle for soprano, baritone, and piano is to compose songs of witness. I have chosen four poems: 

• Museum of Stones by Carolyn Forché (poet, translator, essayist and human rights activist); 

• Normal by Reginald Harris (Poetry in the Branches Coordinator for Poets House in New York City and Contributor to LGBTQ America Today: An Encyclopedia); 

• Hammering on Rocks by Joseph Ross (author of four books of poetry including Raising King, which explores the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr.); and 

• My Body Holds Stones by Laura Tohe (Navajo Nation Poet Laureate and Professor Emerita with Distinction from Arizona State University). 

The poems represent varied American perspectives of the artifacts of human existence and the trajectory of our culture(s), the human capacity to grow numb to suffering, the weight and cost of identity—self imposed and projected—on ourselves, our nation, and our children. I chose poets whose voices represent not only suppressed perspectives but also the voices of Americans born of privilege, willing to use the power of art to focus the readers’ minds on the rough truths of our shared history as Americans. Each poet has given their enthusiastic permission for their poems to be set to music.

How did SUNY Schenectady School of Music faculty and students respond and adapt creatively to the COVID crisis? In this episode, hosts Jennifer and Babette talk with current and former SOM faculty, alumni, and new Dean Dr. Christopher Brellochs, about innovative approaches to teaching at a time of crisis, and their vision for enhancing diversity, equity and inclusion in a discipline long seen as narrowly focused on the works of Western European composers and styles. The episode also introduces the newest project of Mark Evans and Brett Wery at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute in New Hampshire, where they were joined by SOM graduates and emerging artists Areli Mendoza-Pannone and Robert Frazier. The product of their collaboration, the song cycle "Quarry Songs" will be performed at SUNY Schenectady County Community College in the Taylor Auditorium on September 10th.

Aero Quartet

I am honored that they chose to include my Passage of Orpheus on their tour of concerts and outreach programs. Listen to a live performance of “Orpheus” at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute.

Concerts

Thursday, September 16 Con Spirito Chamber Music Series, Thiel College, Greenville, PA, 7:00 pm (eastern)
Friday, September 17 Valparaiso Community Concert Association, Valparaiso, IN, 7:00 pm (central)
Saturday, September 18 Music @ the Fort Concert Series, Midwest Young Artists Conservatory, Highwood, IL, 7:00 pm (central)
Wednesday, September 22 The Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, Chicago, IL. Broadcast live on WFMT 98.7 and streamed live at wfmt.com 12:15 pm (central)
Thursday, September 23 Merrimans' Playhouse Chamber Series, South Bend, IN, 7:00 pm (eastern)

Masterclasses & Outreach

Saturday, September 18, Masterclass at Midwest Young Artistis Conservatory, Highwood, IL
Monday, September 20, Band outreach at LaSalle Intermediate Academy, South Bend, IN & John Young Middle School, Mishawaka, IN,

Check out the Aero Quartet’s YouTube channel.

Now Available

Michele Von Haugg Performs The Mipingo Parables

July 24, 2021

Michele Von Haugg performs BLW’s The Mipingo Parables at the
International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest® 2021!

Join Founder of USAF Band of the West Clarinetist  and founder Dajar Music Initiative and Michele Von Haugg as she performs Brett L. Wery’s The Mipingo Parable’s at the International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest® 2020.  This year’s ClarinetFest will be held virtually which means you will be able to join clarinetists from all over the world to view a video produced by composer, Brett L. Wery and featuring the breathtaking performance of Michele Von Haugg.

The Mipingo Parable’s were commissioned by clarinetist, Von Haugg and inspired by her remarkable work with Clarinets for Conservation and the Dajara Music Initiative (DMI). Each summer DMI fearlessly brings a group of mild mannered clarinetists and other musicians to Tanzania where they battle complacency, greed, corruption and ignorance to teach the youth of small communities to play the clarinet and plant the Mpingo tree, the source of clarinets, oboes, and piano keys. The Mpingo trees are planted in a sustainable manner and villages taught the potential of this important resource to enrich and empower their community.

Michele has made a career of teaching important lessons to everyone she encounters from the children of Tanzania to the faculty of local schools, government officials and local police forces, as well as her own staff of music educators. Michele teaches lessons of self-determination, persistence, foresight (the Mpingo takes sixty years to mature), tireless hard work, and courage. The Mpingo Parables are dedicated to Michele and the legion of amazed, exhausted, and enlightened students she leaves in her wake.

Registration for ClarinetFest® 2021 Virtual is now open! The festival will take place on the following dates:

July 9 – 11
July 16 – 18
July 23 – 25

July 30 – 31 (Finale on Saturday Evening) 

Registration is free and open to all clarinetists.
Membership is not required to attend.
To register, please click the button below.

A more detailed schedule of events will be available soon,
so keep checking https://clarinet.org/event/clarinetfest-2021 for the latest details!

Watch the video below to hear samples of The Mipingo Parables.

Learn how you can support the Daraja Music Initiative.

Hey Clarinetists! Up for a challenge? Purchase a digital download of The Mpingo Parables here: