My symphony was the last premier that I enjoyed, in February of 1984, and I am forever indebted to David Lawton, all of the musicians in the orchestra, and also John Lessard for his teaching. I realize now how rare an experience of this sort is, and what an honor it was to have my music performed.  I had composed this work in 1981 while studying with Professor Lessard, and  gave a copy of the score to Stony Brook Graduate Orchestra conductor David Lawton, but I did not hold out any hope that it would be performed due to the size of the project. As a result, I prepared the score but did not work on a set of parts due to the labor involved.

I then received a call from Dr. Lawton in the fall of 1983 saying that he had programmed the piece for a February 1984 concert, and asked for the parts. This was a shock but I promised to create them, and this was when I learned of a grant program available from the American Music Center in New York City. 

I was able to secure the grant and engaged New York copyist Stephen Dydo to assist. The performance was quite successful, and I remain so very grateful to David Lawton and the players.   

Daria Semegen suggested that I write this piece, and I was fortunate to have the concertmaster of the Stony Brook orchestra, Rachelle Vetter, give the premier performance. George Fisher was a fellow grad student and was quite an expert performer of contemporary music, they give an excellent rendition.

Daria was a terrific teacher and fun to work with, and had a compositional approach that owed to her mastery in electronic composition.   She was quite comfortable working with traditional instruments and had a great creative spirit when I was her student.

The Percussion Sextet was a suggestion from my close friend Bruce Tatti, a percussion major at both William Paterson and Stony Brook.  He let me know that if I were to write for percussion ensemble, that likely the Stony Brook group would perform the work. Bruce was at Stony Brook one year before I arrived and we were in close contact during that time. We settled on a group of six players, and I took liberally from the guidance of Charles Wuorinen's writing for percussion in that I divided the ensemble generally in half between pitched and non-pitched instruments. The 'front line' consisted of 2 vibraphones and marimba, and the back line had one percussionist playing six drums, another playing six metal instruments, and the last part has a combination of chimes, glockenspiel, snare drum, and string drum.

I summoned up my courage and decided to conduct the ensemble, and we began rehearsing in late August of 1978, with weekly Wednesday night rehearsals through the following May. I had composed the first two movements when we started rehearsing, and finished the third movement in December. At the risk of sensationalizing, this was a truly amazing experience for me. It was my first time conducting anything, and I appreciated everyone's patience. But, we all very definitely learned the music, and gave two excellent and well-received performances in May of 1979.

The piece was subsequently performed at William Paterson College in 1981 with Bruce Tatti conducting, and again in 1983 at Symphony Space in New York with Eddie Fay conducting.  

This piece originated as an informal double-commission when I was at Stony Brook; flutist Bob Avery and percussionist Dan Kennedy asked if I might write a chamber piece for them to play on a joint recital.  I also wanted to write again for cello, there were many gifted cellists at Stony Brook studying with faculty members Bernard Greenhouse and Timothy Eddy, and grad student Dan Zollars agreed to play my piece. Pianist George Fisher was a fixture at Stony Brook and played many premieres of new compositions. He is featured in two of my works, this quartet and the Duo for Violin and Piano.

The quartet received three performances, and an interesting footnote is that two performances were conducted by then-graduate conducting student David Milnes. He then studied at Yale and is now Dr. Milnes, and has gone on to a fantastic and impressive conducting career.  He is currently Professor of Music and department chair at UC Berkeley, and Music Director of the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra.  I am forever indebted to Dr. Milnes, Bob Avery, Dan Kennedy, Dan Zollars, and George Fisher for this performance, and also to Professor John Lessard for his guidance while composing this piece.

As a student at William Paterson College I gained many friends who were percussionists, and at the top of the list was Bruce Tatti. In 1976 I had written a trio for Flute, Vibraphone, and Double bass that was featured in a composition master class with Charles Wuorinen in spring of 1977.   After hearing this Bruce asked if I would compose something for him. He was a year ahead of me, and was entering the Masters Program at Stony Brook in Percussion in fall of 1977. Bruce was the first person to introduce me to the beauty of the Bach solo cello suites played on marimba, and I sought to compose something new as a suite or partita with short movements similar to the suites. I also took the idea of the opening from Stravinsky's "Requiem Canticles," a piece that I came to love through studies with Jeff Kresky. The Partita is dedicated to Bruce and I remain grateful to him for his friendship and support. I regret that we did not record any of his performances.

I was also surprised to learn on arriving at Stony Brook as a composition student that another percussionist, Daniel Kennedy, was learning the partita and planned to play it on his senior recital. I made the recording of Dan on a small cassette deck with external microphones, it is not great audio quality but is the only one I have. He gave a beautiful, dramatic reading, and also performed the piece from memory. The score was subsequently published, and I remain grateful for the interest in this work.

In 1977 I composed a string quartet while studying with Jeffrey Kresky.  In a surprising series of events the quartet was performed in April 1978 by the Maranda Quartet, on a chamber music concert that was part of the annual festival of contemporary music held each spring. 

I had distributed a few of my scores to faculty members the previous fall, and was honored when Ray Des Roches let me know that there was funding available for a performance.  We found the Maranda Quartet through a connection with the Group for Contemporary Music in New York and engaged them; they would play the Webern Six Bagatelles for String Quartet along with my piece as part of a program of varied works by Kresky, Crumb, and Wuorinen.

I hoped for a usable tape of the performance, and the only option was to record the quartet on a "boom box" placed within twenty feet of the performers.  I have kept this cassette since then, and recently revisited to digitize despite some damage.  The recording reveals a highly skilled and excellent performance, and enthusiastic response, and the immediacy of the appreciation by the audience is very gratifying.

I have also recently digitized the original hard copies of my manuscripts, and the piece is now self-published as a condensed version on amazon.com, available at this link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HGPPQ8Q .  If any string players would like a set of parts for the quartet, please contact me. I offer my deep gratitude to Jeff Kresky, Ray Des Roches, the members of the Maranda Quartet, and Pete Jarvis for all of their help and support in bringing this piece to life.