2022 Salon Concert – About the Composers and Program Notes

Published by Eric Brook on

Sunday, October 23 – Timucua White House
2000 South Summerlin, Orlando, FL 32806.
Doors: 7pm. Concert: 7:30.

Info for Tickets

Stan Cording is an Orlando native and Rollins College graduate who writes music in a style called New Lyricism. He writes music in a wide range of genres and forms, from art song to choral, chamber, orchestral and Christmas music. His album, Christmas Carols Old and New, is available from Amazon.

This is the premier performance of Fête, which was written especially for the Confetti Trio. 

It has 4 short movements, depicting the moods created by various decorations at a party: Streamers, Banners, Lanterns and Tinsel.

A composer and writer, Charlie Griffin was born and raised in New York. Active in the Orlando area since 2010, he teaches in Full Sail University’s Bachelor of Science in Music Production degree program, is the founder and director of the Central Florida Composers Forum, and has been a large budget panelist for United Arts of Central Florida. His original music has been performed in 20 countries in venues like Washington DC’s Kennedy Center, New York’s Merkin and Weill recital halls, the American Cathedral in Paris, festivals such as Aspen, SpoletoUSA, and Mexico’s International Cervantino, and conferences such as the WPPC (World Piano Pedagogy Conference), PASIC (Percussive Arts Society), ACDA (American Choral Directors Association) and NFA (National Flute Association). Recent commissions include works for the Bay Area choral ensemble 21V and the Orlando Contemporary Chamber Orchestra. His non-fiction children’s picture book, Indy and Jenny, is available on Amazon and all major outlets.

Samba Variations was originally commissioned and recorded by guitarist Robert Phillips as part of a multi-composer project for a CD release called Orange Blossom Dances. The title, I hope, is self-explanatory. I since revised and rearranged it for two of my dearest friends, guitarist and composer Troy Gifford and clarinetist Jessica Hall-Speak. This version adds substantially new melodic material. 

In 2004 The New York Times named Keith Lay (b.1958 Barberton, OH) “a composer to watch for.” Gramophone magazine described his music as “unapologetically emotional ” (2005). The Orlando Weekly called him “Orlando’s most inventive composer.” 

“My goal is to inspire reverent wonder about the world of sound and the science, perceptions, and emotions that connect us to nature and each other. A life of curiosity, working, music-making, teaching, and growing with Vipassana, Deep Listening, and experimenting help me achieve it.”

To pay respect to James Brown, I cataloged the riffs in his 1972 “Funky Drummer” to create “Funky Tubes for Tuba Trio,” commissioned by the FMTNA, premiering at their convention in 2018.

I met Bob after hearing about his search into lost metallurgic processes that produced superior tubas in the 19th Century and his sons at “Distance Music at Lake Eola” playing monstrous instruments. As his first call for studio sessions, drummer Gerald Law came to my attention through producer Darren Schneider.  

The extreme range of “Funky Tubas” is FIENDISHLY DIFFICULT, which just made the Carpenters love it more. I’ve rewritten it many times to make it easier, but they will have none of it! Because of their long wavelengths, tuba notes take longer to speak, dragging the tempo without constant vigilance. I’ve added the immediate sound of the drums to help maintain funk’s necessary precision.

Seunghee Lee (b.1980) is a Korean-American composer/pianist/educator. Born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, Lee moved to the United States in 2003 and has been on the music faculty at Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, FL since 2015.

Performances of her composition have taken place in notable venues and festivals worldwide, including concert halls in Germany, Finland, Italy, Hong Kong, Columbia, South Korea and across the United States. Her music has won several competitions, residencies, and commissions, including the 2019 Judith Lang Zaimont Prize of International Alliance for Women in Music, McCormick Percussion Group Commission, Florida Youth Symphony Orchestra Composer Residency, and Orlando Contemporary Chamber Orchestra Commission. www.seungheeleemusic.com

Heung, for Piano (Merriment for Piano, 2022), is a piece I wrote for Pianist Chee Hyeon Choi. Her interest in contemporary piano repertoires representing Korean traditional tunes and beats were the main compositional inspiration for this project. This piece is my own interpretation of traditional Korean music, keeping the fundamental impression of tunes and beats (i.e. half-step grace notes for pitch-bending, quasi-whole tone scales, mimicking the performance style of Janggu drum, etc.).  I’ve written four short movements to represent four emotions (happiness, anger, sadness, and joy), which are the main emotions frequently referred in East Asian cultures as Hee, Roh, Ae, and Rack (희로애락, 喜怒哀樂). In the midst of going through these emotions over four thousand years, Korean people have kept merriment alive with them to this day.

Brandon Martin is an Orlando-based vocalist and composer. While he regularly performs at EPCOT with The Voices of Liberty, he has also performed as soloist with the Orlando Philharmonic and has been an actor in or music director for various local theatre productions. As a composer/arranger, Brandon has been commissioned by Florida Symphony Youth Orchestras for its 2019-20 and 2022-23 seasons and is published by Excelcia Music.

Program Notes:

“Confession Drops” and “Full of Life Now” come from a song cycle called Calamus, sharing the name of a collection of Walt Whitman poems. These poems have been interpreted as homophilic, conjuring scenes of “manly, adhesive love” between comrades: at times celebrating the platonic love and camaraderie between men, but sometimes, in a quieter tone, celebrating the romantic love between men. As a fan of Whitman’s poetry, it seems some of his most intimate writing. As a gay man, it feels like a “coming out”, an illuminating and celebrating of love that too often, throughout history, is shrouded in shadow.

Paul Austin Sanders has been with Central Florida Composers forum since 2018 …so far, since then he has had the opportunity to premier 6 original soundscapes at the CF2 Salon concerts in 2018 and 2019 at Timucua Arts Foundation ..And Compose  an original Wind Quintet score for the Joint project with Orlando Story ..where each composer wrote original music to go with each story teller.Paul Moved here from Seattle ,Washington originally to work in entertainment at Disney and later Universal..Since then he has been evolved in the arts community in a variety of ways in Music, Theatre, Film and Visual Art..He Was a Voice Major at Western Washing University in Bellingham ,Washington , with additional Studies in Composition,jazz bass and Actors Studio….

    This will be his first Neo Classical composition to premier at Timucua..This Elations String Quartet  4th movement was completed during the early days of the Pandemic lock down.which became a very creative time..where a diversity of new neo classical music was begun..As well he was able to put together some new creative pages to get his music and art expressions out on to the internet 

paulaustinsandersstrangerthanfiction.bandcamp.compatreon.com search renaissanceartzman

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