2000

Notes from 2000. The next project will be a composition for the United States Military Academy Band at West Point. Col. David Deitrich asked me to write a piece for the Bicentennial of the West Point Military Academy. I hope to have the music finished in time for premiere at the Academy on the 4th of July, 2001. I received an interesting note from my Ludwig Publishers, included in the mail with two copies of my most recently published piece, Max The King (its is based on Where the Wild Things Are, but I wasn't allowed to use that title). Ludwig's Melody Greene writes of Max the King: "We really like this one. Donnie in the production department came to me asking to hear this one. She said that it looked so weird that she had to hear it before she decided that she didn't like it!... She sat with me and listened to every minute of it and then said, "That's really good. I didn't think it would sound anything like that. Tell him I like it. OK." She really likes it. Recent premieres: A Parisian in America: ASBDA Honor Band, Novemeber 13, 2000, Thomas C. Duffy conducting. And Flights of Angels Sing Thee To Thy Rest for band and optional organ, was premiered at Yale University, Woolsey Hall, April 1, 2000, composer conducting the New England Intercollegiate Honor Band. I premiered my new piece, And Flights of Angels Sing Thee To Thy Rest in memoriam Stanley D. Hettinger at the Eastern Division Conference of the CBDNA and the New England College Band Association. Stan was a good friend; he was the Director of Bands at the University of New Hampshire for several decades. He died in 1997. The music uses an optional organ, and Yale's Woolsey Hall houses a huge organ! It went over well. I have to sign off now and get about composing!