Ellie Jenkins, horn and natural horn, and Lou Ann Knight, piano, have collaborated with me on a piece for horn, natural horn and piano entitled Finding Rest. This work will be premiered on a recital the two are giving on Sunday, May 7, 2023, at 3:00 p.m. at the Christ Presbyterian Church , 520 South Tibbs Road, Dalton, GA 30720. Some of the other works on the program include Nevertheless, She Persisted by Edward Knight, written in 2017 and L’Automne by Jean Baptiste Victor Mohr, a professor from the Paris Conservatory in the late 19th century. Lou Ann Knight will also perform some solo piano works.

Dr. Ellie Jenkins, a native of coastal Georgia, joined the faculty at Dalton State College in 2010, and is an Affiliate Artist in horn at Berry College. An active performer, she is principal horn in the Carroll Symphony and the Chamber Players of the South, and second horn with the Rome Symphony. She also performs in Austria most summers with the Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt. Dr. Jenkins holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin – Madison (DMA), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (MM) and the University of Miami (BM).

Lou Ann (Pope) Knight taught at Harper College in the Chicago area, and was the Co-Coordinator for the Piano Pedagogy Department at the University of Michigan. She most recently taught piano at Dalton State College. She was recently married and will open a new piano studio in Calhoun, GA in the fall. Mrs. Knight holds degrees from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX (Master in Piano Pedagogy) and Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, (Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance with emphasis on Pedagogy)

Samantha Sherman, a voice student of Dr. Cheryl Coker, Millsaps College, Jackson, MS, collaborated with me on the writing of the art song, “The Key-Note,” (poetry of Christina Rossetti). I sent her several poems; she selected “The Key-Note,” Samantha told me why she chose the poem, spoke of favorite vocal composers, and mentioned some of her favorite musical styles. Her teacher, Dr. Coker, sent me videos of Samantha’s performances that I might get acquainted with her voice which, by the way, is very beautiful. With these thoughts in mind I wrote the music for this art song. On Tuesday, April 26, 2022, Samantha presented her senior recital which included this collaborative art song. Click the link to listen to her performance accompanied by Lynn Raley at the piano.

I was able to attend the Sixth International Festival of Music by Women at Mississippi University for Women, Columbus, MS, March 3-5. My “Fountain Fantasy” was performed on one of the concerts by Michelle Kiec, clarinet and Jonathan Levin, piano. Here are the program notes followed by the live-stream performance.

Program notes: The clarinet opens this work with a fairly long solo meant to depict the “fits and starts” of a great design of multiple fountains beginning to display their glittering water. The piano enters and allows the clarinet to rise and fall in ever ascending passages to picture the great fountain complex. After a short solo section by the piano the clarinet begins its slow, undulating fall until the clarinet solo ending which is the opening in retrograde. Once more the fountain is still.

The premiere of the setting of the Christina Rossetti poem, “A Birthday,” for soprano and woodwind trio is scheduled for April, 2022, on a Women in Music-Columbus concert in Westerville, Ohio.  Performers are:  Jessica Kahn, soprano, Sarah Luckay, flute, Joy Norris, clarinet, and Alan Ray, bassoon.

At the International Festival of Music by Women at Women’s University of Mississippi in March, 2022 Dr. Marika Kyriakos,  Professor of Voice at Arkansas State University, and Jerry Casey will present a lecture recital premiering her mono-drama, “Mary Magdalene at the Tomb” (for unaccompanied soprano).  At that same conference two other works will also be performed, “Fountain Fantasy” (Clarinet and Piano) and “Jesus Has Come At Last” (Soprano and  horn) from Seven Signs (A Song Cycle for Seven Singers and Seven Instrumentalists)

“What Shall We Bring?” (SSAATTBB a cappella) was featured at the CFAMC Virtual Conference, October 23, 2021.  This work was recorded by the Concert Choir of Otterbein University, Westerville, Ohio, under the direction of Dr. Gayle Walker.  The soloist was Caitlyn Mulkie.

“O, Death, Rock Me Asleep” (Soprano and Solo Violin) was featured at the NACUSA Dallas New Music Virtual Conference May 21-23, 2021.  The soprano was Jessica Kahn, the violinist Erica Donahoe.

The Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers (CFAMC) 2020 Virtual Conference was held October 17, 2020.  My works presented for this conference were Suite for Brass and Percussion,(Amy Baker and Tom McKay, trumpets, Helen Doerring and Vivian Baker, horns, and Linda Dauwlder-Dachtyl, percussion); “You Speak of Color” (Tenor and solo Cello) from Seven Signs (A Song Cycle for Seven Singers and Seven Instrumentalists) a MIDI realization; and “Life and Love” from Three Love Songs (Rebecca Keck, soprano and Eileen Huston, piano).