A new look and Shine Shone!

Where would I be without Joe Pisano? Still kicking around wondering if my stuff was good enough to be out there – that’s where.  Joe has been in my corner from day 1 on this journey.  He is my friend, my colleague, and my brother, and I really appreciate all he has done – which included calling me the other […]

A Frontier Fought and A City Found

What a couple of weeks!!! It has been absolutely humbling to have so many performances of “American Visions” over the past few weeks – my sincere thanks to many friends and colleagues who made the piece a part of their spring concert.  My thanks to Drew Fennell and the River City Youth Brass Band for their world debut performance of […]

A Journey, some Pirates, a Jig, and a “Frontier…”

On the horizon – Pirates! (a 2009 J.W.Pepper’s Editor’s Choice) and Irish Jig for Young Feet will be available this summer from FJH Music.  Irish Jig for Young Feet is a delightful little 6/8 jig with some call and response between the percussionists and the winds players (and their feet!).  My thanks goes out to Tad Greig who was the […]

Help Me Obi-Wan Kenobi, You’re My Only Hope…

So those of you who follow my survival on Facebook hopefully have realized by now – I am a huge Star Wars fan.  A friend of a friend was actually worried about me for awhile thinking I was participating in a cult that believed the “force” was a religion, and George Lucas was a “high priest” (thanks alot Bob!).  But […]

Interdisciplinary Unit and RCampus

So thanks to Dr. Jay Dorfman’s (while he was still at Kent)class this past summer, I created an interdisciplinary unit on the Trail of Tears to enrich my ensemble’s studying of two pieces of music, “The Trail of Tears” by James Barnes and “Etowah” by Brian Balmages.  For those of you unfamiliar with the piece by Barnes, I highly recommend […]

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