Arts Residency Recital – 4 New Lullabies!

I am happy to announce that as part of a year long Guest Artist Residency at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, I’ll be performing a free recital on Wednesday, April 17th in the Woolley Room at Mary Lyon Hall.  The program features music by J.S. Bach; Elliott Carter; Boston-based composer Kevin Siegfried; new works by young Wheaton composers, and a duo with violinist Irina Muresanu of music by Ravi Shankar, in honor of the international music hero’s recent passing.  I am most excited by the fact that the program will feature four new lullabies by Wheaton composition students as part of my New Lullaby Project.   Click HERE for concert info.

Wheaton College Concert

I first came to the school in December 2012 to perform the Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquin Rodrigo with the student orchestra, The Great Woods Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Delvyn Case.  I returned in late February to work with four composition student, none of which had written for guitar.  I performed some solo pieces for them (Carter, Siegfried, Feist), discussed writing for the guitar (tunings, notation, possibilities and pitfalls) and took their questions.

In late March I came back with drafts of their new compositions and read through them for the class.  The experience was exhilarating and a bit nerve racking.   I had received two of the four the night before and only read through them that morning, some had some issue with their notation software, they were not sure what to expect and the first time can be a bit brutal for all of us.  After two hours, I think the students came away with an idea of how to improve the music (notation, voicing) to get their ideas across, take better advantage of the guitar and not kill the player’s hands.  Since then and over many emails I have received ‘new’ versions and am practicing away!  I am very excited for the upcoming concert.

It is a great honor to work with these young minds and present their work.  I hope you will join me for the concert!

-Aaron

New Lullabies by Young Composers:
Berceuse for Iris by Gordon Jones ‘14
The Edge bMontana Rogers ‘15y
Icarion by Siv Anderson ‘15
Post-Bedtime Adventure by Tim Larson ‘15

Also on the Program:
Suite BWV 996 by J.S. Bach
Shard by Elliott Carter (watch video HERE)
Tracing a wheel on Water by Kevin Siegfried
L’Aube Enchantée by Ravi Shankar, in honor of the music hero’s recent passing, with violinist Irina Muresanu