First off, congratulations to Katie Crook for a great premiere of ‘Wild, Wild the Storm’ last Saturday! She did well, and it was certainly a challenging program. I’m glad that such a good crowd came! And there may be more news to report soon regarding another commission, the fourth, in the Book of Hours series.

Then: this Saturday, April 11, my new arrangement of ‘Scarborough Fair’ premieres at 3 PM. Earlier this semester, soprano Crystal Fox told me that she was singing one of Berio’s folk song arrangements (Black is the Colour), which is accompanied by viola and harp. So I suggested a companion piece to make the poor instrumentalists (violist Ron Sondergaard and harpist Nikki Rorhbach) feel just a bit more needed. The result was this arrangement. Like the Berio, the music is often unbarred, which allows quite a bit of freedom of interpretation. The end result is (hopefully) in more of a folk style, something you’d hear if Berio and maybe early Bartok had played a lute and lyre in some English town square, accompanying Dawn Upshaw as she drew water from a well.  That’s kind of an odd picture, I know; I really can’t see Bartok playing a lyre… but anyway, I’m looking forward to the premiere on Saturday.  The piece isn’t quite as straightforward as last week’s premiered piece, but it certainly should be fun!

More news to come later regarding a possible premiere in downtown Chicago…

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