ChanJi Kim

Best of OCCO: Echoes & Encores: July 18 @ Blue Bamboo features FIVE CF2 composers!

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Best of OCCO: Echoes & Encores

Event Details

  • Date: Saturday, July 18, 2026
  • Time: 8:00 P.M.
  • Venue: Blue Bamboo Center for the Performing Arts
  • Address: 460 E. New England Ave., Winter Park, FL

Presented by the Orlando Contemporary Chamber Orchestra (OCCO) Conducted by Todd Craven

About OCCO

Since 2017, OCCO has been dedicated to engaging, captivating, and uplifting audiences with new music performed by local, professional musicians and innovative collaborations with composers, poets, comic book artists, and more. As the only orchestral organization focused on local composers, musicians, and audiences, we aim to contribute to the cultural fabric of Orlando and Central Florida.

About Echoes & Encores

Join OCCO for a memorable evening of contemporary chamber music at the Blue Bamboo Center for the Performing Arts. Best of OCCO: Echoes & Encores brings together a vibrant, carefully curated selection of pieces by living composers, ranging from delicate representations of stillness to works of visceral, kinetic intensity.

This special program highlights favorite works by some of Central Florida’s finest compositional voices – including a new commissioned overture by OCCO’s founder, Jamie Wehr – alongside competition-winning works that have muscled their way to Orlando from national and international stages.

Program Guide

Act I

  • Jamie Wehr – Prelude to a Dream
    • The Piece: This work is a personal reflection on aspiration and longing, focused on the quiet resolve required to follow a beautiful, distant dream even when the path forward remains uncertain.
    • The Composer: Wehr founded the Orlando Contemporary Chamber Orchestra in 2017, laying the groundwork for its ongoing mission to champion new music in Central Florida.
  • Matthew Browne – Writer’s Room (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGBa9kjNlW8)
    • The Piece: This chaotic composition aims to evoke the frantic atmosphere of a television writers’ room, constantly introducing and abandoning wild ideas as a deadline rapidly approaches.
    • The Composer: Based in Colorado, Dr. Browne earned his DMA from the University of Michigan and is an award-winning composer whose witty works strive to astonishingly blend humor and relentless rhythmic energy.
  • ChanJi Kim – Dear Umma
    • The Piece: This deeply personal composition explores distance and maternal connection by weaving an expressive Korean folk tune through lyrical lines and gentle dissonance.
    • The Composer: Dr. Kim is a native of Korea who holds a Ph.D. from the University of Florida and serves as a Professor of Music and Chair of the Performing and Visual Arts Department at Eastern Florida State College.
  • Troy Gifford – Milonga Abandonada
    • The Piece: Serving as a heartfelt homage to the traditional music of Argentina, this piece synthesizes elements of Latin and classical styles into an expressive interpretation of the dance form.
    • The Composer: Dr. Gifford is an award-winning guitarist and composer who earned his doctorate from the University of Miami and currently serves as the chair of the music department at Valencia College.
  • Jeremy Umlauf – Hero of Time
    • The Piece: This narratively driven work is an abstract medley for a hypothetical Legend of Zelda video game, using original music to convey overarching themes of adventure and courage.
    • The Composer: An eclectic Orlando-area creator who received his Master of Arts in Music from the University of Central Florida, Umlauf frequently draws creative inspiration from spending time in Florida’s rich fisheries.

Act II

  • Billy Waldman – Villanelle (https://youtu.be/UzFHnegpocM)
    • The Piece: Drawing on traditional French traditions, this light, dance-like sextet shifts smoothly between a pastoral elegance and lively, syncopated movement.
    • The Composer: Born in 2006, Waldman is a Los Angeles-based pianist and composer currently studying at the University of Southern California who won the 2024 National Young Composers Challenge at Steinmetz Hall.
  • Alex Burtzos – RAGE (https://youtu.be/FWn5_Zk9Xj8)
    • The Piece: This intense chamber work acts as an expression of generational discontent, borrowing heavily from the heavy metrical language of metal music and incorporating a historical 1789 letter by Thomas Jefferson.
    • The Composer: Dr. Burtzos is a New York and Orlando-based composer, the founder of the ICEBERG New Music collective, and currently serves as the Endowed Chair of Composition Studies at the University of Central Florida.
  • Charlie Griffin – Looking up at Perfect Silence at the Stars
    • The Piece: Inspired by a Robert Frost poem, this expansive work captures the wide range of emotions and moods that arise when contemplating the beauty of the night sky and our connection to the cosmos.
    • The Composer: Holding a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, Dr. Griffin is an experienced educator who founded the Central Florida Composers Forum in 2011 to actively support local music creators.
  • Robin Haigh – FILTH (https://youtu.be/2mj3kH6TZT8)
    • The Piece: Originally commissioned for a high-energy German concert project, this amplified, gritty piece uses abrasive timbres and extreme dynamics to capture an unconventional EDM-inspired vibe.
    • The Composer: Haigh is an internationally recognized Irish/British creator whose unique, multi-stylistic music has earned prestigious accolades, including an Ivor Novello Award.

By Charlie Griffin, ago

MAJOR EVENT: Thresholds: Choral Doorways Into Hope, Loss and Spirit at Harriet’s Orlando Ballet on September 16

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The 16-voice ensemble VoxO, directed by Claire Hodge and joined by pianist Libby Chippeaux, violinist Julia Gessinger, cellist Jamie Clark, and harpist Haley Rhodeside, presents a first-of-its-kind program ever heard in Orlando: regional or world premieres of choral works written entirely by living Central Florida composers.

The works in this program explore the depths of the emotional and spiritual human experience, from the Korean lullaby Jajang-ga by ChanJiKim to Alex Burtzos’s setting of Shakespeare’s Come Away, Death. New spiritual works set in Latin, like Brandon Martin’s Ave Maris Stella, Stan Cording’s Exaudi Me, and Alan Gerber’s Ubi Caritas, complement the secular deeply poetic expression found in works like Troy Gifford’s Like Water, Chaz Underriner’s Forget Sleep, and Charlie Griffin’s In After Time.

The singers of VoxO are:

Sopranos: Pam Armitage, Jenni Ayers, Brittany Payne, Stephanie Rosario

Altos: Ashley Duvé, Alice Fortunato, Jennifer Hunt, Corrie Shaw

Tenors: William Ayers, Michael Clossey, Larry Fortunato, Enrique Ynaty

Basses: Michael Andrew Creighton, Jason Ernst, Linden Gould, Andrew V Smith

Many, many thanks to The Awesome Foundation for their support of this project, along with Full Sail University, University of Central Florida, Valencia College, Track Shack, and Tom Dyer.

By Charlie Griffin, ago

Transcend: Movement Meets Music – CF2 and Emotions Dance at Timucua Arts Foundation, October 27

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Sunday, October 27 at the Timucua White House
2000 South Summerlin, Orlando, FL 32806.
Doors: 7pm. Concert: 7:30.
VIP Tickets are $30, other seating by donation.

The Central Florida Composers Forum (CF2) is excited to present its first collaborative event with Emotions Dance. The performance will feature music by local composers Daniel Crozier (Symphony No. 1, Fairytale), Troy Gifford (Milonga Abandonada), Charlie Griffin (Between Islands), ChanJi Kim (Jong; Ta), Christopher Marshall (Hikurangi Sunrise; Transcending), and Bob Walker (Silent Scream; Music on the Water). Bob Walker and Benoit Glazer will perform live.

Emotions Dance are: Amparo Padilla, Chloe Haslett, CJ Sheffield, Veronica Ramirez, Katie Masterson, Brooke Shoultz, Autumn Goetting, Raleigh Shelton, Emily Nunez, Jacquelyn Cheffer, Lauren Theriault, and Larissa Humiston.

Emotions Dance is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2007 by Artistic Director and Choreographer Larissa Humiston. Emotions Dance consists of a professional contemporary dance company that focuses on social and environmental awareness through the art of dance, dance education training at the organization’s state of the art dance studio, and programs that enrich the local community. The organization emphasizes strong technical training and education combined with passionate artistry. Through inspiring performances, arts-education programs, and active community outreach the company touches thousands of people of all ages, races, and economic backgrounds.

By Charlie Griffin, ago

7th Annual Composer DIY Salon Concert

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Central Florida Composers Forum – 7th Annual Composers DIY Salon Concert
Sunday, September 29 at the Timucua White House
2000 South Summerlin, Orlando, FL 32806.
Doors: 7pm. Concert: 7:30.
VIP Tickets are $30, other seating by donation.

For seven years, Central Florida Composers Forum (CF2) has been offering its members a first-come, first-on, get-er-done yerself opportunity to present work to the Orlando/Central Florida public. The composers themselves perform or arrange for the performers. That always means a wider variety of sonic possibilities than a more typical, curated CF2 concert featuring a unified instrumentation.

This program features Rebekah Todia’s Crossing The Bar, for piano and voice; Melody Cook’s For Two Voices, No. 2, for clarinet and piano; Holly Cordero’s Personified Bliss, for string quartet, Bob Jr.’s Conjure the Storm, for piano, guitar, bass, and drums; Paul Austin Sanders’ electronic compositions Danze Africanne, Spirit of the East, and Bop Latinesque; ChanJi Kim’s Imaginary Lines for clarinet and audio; and premieres of Alex Burtzos’ X Codes, for violin, clarinet, and piano, and also his Perforation, for solo piano.

By Charlie Griffin, ago