Category Archives: concert

Suite Of Old-Style Items [Bernstein Bunch]

jane bernstein

Jane Bernstein

Premiered on November 22, 2015, by Tufts Chamber Orchestra for the concert Gloria, at Distler Hall, Granoff Music Center, Tufts Univerisity, Medford, Massachusetts.

The Suite Of Old-Style Items [Bernstein Bunch], Op. 576 (2015) for strings is dedicated to Jane Bernstein, Austin Fletcher Professor of Music, celebrating her scene-transforming 40 years at Tufts University.

  1. Upon Ormavoyt
  2. Cromatica (Interlude By Twos) [attacca]
  3. Alternatim (Ormavoyt Again)
  4. Fragments/Glow

When Jane Bernstein was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005, I started searching for a way to celebrate her singular achievement with a piece of music. Continue reading →

Stafford Diptych

Performed on November 7, 2015 by Sharan Leventhal, violin, and Patricia Ann Metzer, soprano, for the concert Chorus Pro Musica: With Strings Attached.

Stafford Diptich op. 417

  1. News Every Day
  2. Some Things the World Gave

Since first setting a poem by William Stafford in 1991, I have returned many times to this late poet’s direct and thought-provoking informal verses. When Adam Grossman invited me to compose something for The Master Singers, I quickly unearthed this pair of contrasting “Staffords,” attractive as much for playfulness as for their startlingly serious flashes.

I took it as a challenge to write for the choir with a sole violin as a performing partner; as a pianist, it is always hard for me to remove the keyboard from a conception. Here, the violin soloist is entrusted with many “stage settings,” creating, sustaining, and changing attitudes and directions according to the poems’ varying terrains.

Boston Classical Review says of the piece:
It was time again for something bracing, and choir and violinist Leventhal delivered in style with Stafford Diptych, Op. 417, by John McDonald… The chorus effectively intoned the wry, ironic texts by William Stafford in gently jerky rhythms and dry harmonies that favored the hollow sound of open fifths. Violinist Leventhal led the way throughout, alternating with the chorus in spiky, virtuosic, multiple-stopping violin solos, which backed off at times into affecting, dissonant laments. Her vivid playing provided the most arresting music of the evening, rivaled only by the exotic choruses of the Betinis piece.

I thank composer/conductor Adam Grossman, violinist Frank Powdermaker, and The Master Singers of Lexington for bringing this poetic pairing to initial musical life in 2004, and conductor Jamie Kirsch, violinist Sharan Leventhal, and Chorus pro Musica for performing the work anew in 2015.

Three Sketchbook Items

Premiered on October 18, 2015, by Jill Dreeben, flute, Todd Brunel, clarinet, and Elizabeth Skavish, piano, for Contemporary With Classic: Music with Flute Clarinet and Piano,
Brandeis University Concert Series, Slosberg Recital Hall, Brandeis Univerisity, Waltham, Massachusetts.

Commissioned by Jill Dreeben for the concert at Brandeis University, this trio casts (or recasts) some sketchbook materials, shedding new light on sometimes “pending” ideas and giving then the particular definition that the flute/clarinet/piano instrumentation suggests.

  1. Prelude is a version of a two part invention entitled Deux Mains Qui Penser; as the French title suggests, the piece is somewhat pensive (and a little capricious).
  2. Opa’s Twofer is a pair of similarly enrgetic (but also reflective) ideas smashed together to congratulate and celecrate pianist/composer Thomas Stumpf on his recent grandfatherhood.
  3. Trio Study in Familiar Style is a four part chorale; parts are underlined/doubled in ways that the instruments accentuate idiomatically.

The three pieces were presented together as a set due to their proximity in my sketchbook as well as because of their contrasting qualities.

Boston Arts Diary writes:
John McDonald’s Three Sketchbook Items immediately calls forth the image of “Cubist Copland,” an abstract array of sounds that still maintains, at its core, a kind of pastoral unity. The wandering sonority of the Prelude is short, quaint and angular, giving way, in Opa’s Twofer to tremolos echoing three ways, with an emerging lyrical piano line that seeks to sew the fluttering pieces into a quilt of sounds.

Three Sketchbook Items is dedicated to Jill, Todd, and Liz with gratitude.

Kindling With Subsongs

Premiered on February 27, 2015, by Lois Shapiro, piano, Randall Hodgkinson, piano, and Colin Gee, performance artist, for the concert Mythos/Melos: The Intertwining Threads of Music and Narrative, at Distler Hall, Granoff Music Center, Tufts Univerisity, Medford, Massachusetts.

Watch Kindling with Subsongs from Colin Gee on Vimeo.

colin gee kindling with subsongs

Colin Gee

Commissioned for the concert by Lois Shapiro and Randall Hodgkinson, Kindling With Subsongs [Two-Part Prequel To Ignite Would-Be Firebirds], Op. 555 (2014-2015) for two pianos is dedicated to the performers.

PART 1: 1. Kindling I (Maestoso; brioso)—2. Subsong I (Chant-Like and Flitting)—3. Subsong II (Misterioso; Somnambulent)

PART 2: 1.  Kindling II (Crackling/Rumbling)—2. Subsong III (Martellato; Brittle)—3. Subsong IV (Tranquillo misterioso)—4. Subsong V (Incisive; Exactly Together)

Composed as an introduction to Lois Shapiro’s and Randall Hodgkinson’s performance of an arrangement of Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite, Kindling With Subsongs takes notions and “rehearses snippets” from Stravinsky’s legendary ballet music in an attempt to capture bits of its singular atmosphere, thereby preparing the listener in particular quirky ways for the experience of The Firebird Suite itself. Continue reading →

Short List

Premiered on September 16, 2014 by  Transient Canvas: Amy Advocat, bass clarinet & Matt Sharrock, marimba, at Davis Square Theater, Somerville, MA.


Video by Transient Canvas

Short List, op. 548 (2014) for bass clarinet & marimba

  1. First Thing In The Morning
  2. Unable To Move Much
  3. Five-Note Echo Groups
  4. Phrases In Their Places
  5. Doodad Made In An Adirondack Chair
  6. Steady As Can Be

“Inspired” by the rituals of academic search processes (the formation of “short lists”), this particular short list is a collection of six miniatures gleaned from notebook sketches and personalized for Amy and Matt. The pieces where conceived in places as different as the accupuncture table (2) and the front porch (5).