NOVUM DECUS ORITUR

This was my first of 11 choral awards, and it needs a fresh performance with my new updates.

Winner of the 2010 Spectrum Singers Young Composer Competition, this setting of the traditional Latin text is a work of textural richness, journey, and growth that leads to an expected and satisfying climax and closes with a hymn-like advent prayer, "salus nascitur," salvation is born.

SHE HATH STRENGTH FOR ALL

I really love this piece!

needs a premiere . . .

“Life is not a vision nor a prayer, but stubborn work.” Capturing the essence of the struggle and beauty of hard work for a good, ordinary life, Emma Lazarus breathes new life into the daily grind, into the “woman’s work” that is never done. This beautiful text elevates work, personifies her as an industrious woman, and brings her forward in elegance and strength without romanticizing her. And yet, we finish the third stanza and close out this choral setting, we are inspired to “fill our days with duties done” and to enjoy when “strange vigor comes,” and we are “restored to health.”

DEUM DE DEO

I think this is the best piece I've ever written! And it needs a premiere.

Several years ago I was singing the Credo of Arvo Pärt's Berliner Messe, and I was struck by a singularly poignant tenor line and bit of text, "Deum de Deo," God from God, and I immediately went home and composed this unconventional Christmas mass. It's for choir and organ, though I have a commission from a college in FL for which I'm supplementing brass and winds. We begin with a grand Kyrie followed by two contemplative movements, a Pärt-like Veni Sancte Spiritus then an accapella setting of the lesser known Vox Clara (Lauridsen-esque). A succinct Sanctus then soars and propels us into the final movement, Deum de Deo.

If the entire piece is out of reach, I especially recommend the Veni Sancte Spiritus (with piano, organ, or strings) and Vox Clara as standalones.