My former teacher and dissertation advisor, James Primosch, has died, age 64. Jim was an honest, warm, caring, compassionate human being, and I will miss him. I learned the music of many wonderful composers through him: Davidovsky, Perle, Martino, and others. We got along splendidly from our first meetings and shared many laughs and a lot of dark humor. (We also share a birthday.) Jim wrote some truly stunningly beautiful pieces, especially some of his songs—I hope he knew that, I told him so—and I believe that beauty will live on and Jim through it. Rest in peace, my dear friend.
Sandburg Songs CD Release
I’m absolutely thrilled to announce that Sandburg Songs has been released on Albany Records. My portrait CD features the renowned soprano Tony Arnold with Zohn Collective and conductor Tim Weiss in my large-scale song cycle based on Carl Sandburg’s Chicago Poems, along with four other chamber works that span a decade of creative work. These works are scored for solo piano (Inner Truth), solo guitar (They Say), clarinet and violin duo (Noticing), and a trio for clarinet, violin, and piano (In Search of Planet X) and represent different points in my artistic output. The musicians are stellar, and it feels great to finally share this music with the broader public. I am especially grateful to the entire team at Albany Records and Oberlin Conservatory, including recording engineer Paul Eachus, and to my friend, the video artist, David Colagiovanni, whose art are found on the album cover and throughout the liner notes. The disc is available for purchase online here.