NEWS
I was pleased to present a lecture-recital on a sonata by Sophie Maria Westenholz in Vilnius, Lithuania and to perform my solo piano work Starscapes in Rīga, Latvia as part of the College Music Society's 2023 International Conference in the Baltics. I also attended the 150th Anniversary of the Latvian Festival of Song and Dance with 16,000 singers onstage and tens of thousands in attendance at a purpose-built amphitheater in a forest near Rīga; learned more about Arvo Pärt's life and music at the Arvo Pärt Centre in Laulasmaa, Estonia; explored the medieval "old town" district of Tallinn, Estonia; and heard may inspiring lectures, lecture-recitals, and performances.
I am thrilled to announce that the Alabama State Council on the Arts has awarded me a 2024 Artist Fellowship!
Check out the album souls like birds... by Mient Duo (Michael Averett, trumpet and flugelhorn, and Brent Ferguson, guitar), released Jun 9, 2023 on Centaur Records. It includes my Adiaphoron for flugelhorn and electric guitar, along with new music by my colleague Dr. Joel S. Davis and others.
The Idaho Falls Symphony with Maestro Thomas Heuser performed Reef on September 10, 2022 on their "Tales from the High Seas" concert!
New York based Apply Triangle have undertaken a massive project of rehearsing and recording 33 new works for their innovative lineup. The project will be released in three volumes under the overarching title Oxalis Triangularis. I am grateful to be a part of this project with a new work for flute, bass clarinet, electric piano, and fixed media, entitled Room 68.
The violin duo Miolina NYC presented my Dyad along with recent works by Holland Hopson, Cecilia Franke, Jessica Meyer, Alvin Singleton, Geni Skendo, and Lynn Bechtold in recital at The University of Alabama's Moody Hall on March 28, 2022.
Thanks to the Samford University School of the Arts Diversity Series for hosting "Diversifying the Repertoire: A Piano Sonata by Sophie Maria Westenholz" on March 26, 2022.
Thanks to the organizers of the College Music Society Southern Region Conference at Delta State University, where I presented my research "Diversifying the Repertoire: A Piano Sonata by Sophie Maria Westenholz."
Congratulations to all who were involved in the 2021 Magic City Clarinet Festival on August 7, 2021 organized by my friend the extraordinary clarinetist Dr. Brian Viliunas. (One of his albums is on my Discography page!) It was a pleasure to see old friends and make new ones.
Recently on IMSLP I ran across a manuscript of a piano sonata in F minor by German composer Sophie Maria Westenholz (1759–1838). As I studied the manuscript, I felt a desire to help more people discover her wonderful music, and so I have created and typeset a new edition and published it on ISMLP under a 2021 Creative Commons license. I look forward to hearing from pianists who will take advantage of this newly-available edition and perform this sonata.
Congratulations to MIOLINA violin duo on the release of a là BAMA on Composers Concordance Records, a collection of works by Alabama composers that includes my composition Dyad.
Thrilled to announce the release of my Quartet for Strings on the 2-CD collection Alabama String Quartets, performed by Amernet String Quartet on MSR Classics.
I am grateful to announce selection of my Quartet for Strings for the Sixty-Third National Conference of The College Music Society in Miami, Florida, October 22–24, 2020, which will be presented 100% online this year for safety reasons. The work will be performed by the extraordinary Amernet String Quartet. Thank you, CMS, and thank you, Amernet String Quartet!
Thank you to the ALABAMA ALL-STATE ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION for selecting my Reef as the winner of the 2020 Composition Contest! I am honored that my work was selected from among submissions from across the country, and I was thrilled to be the composer-in-residence for this year's All-State Festival!
A very special thanks to Maestro Claudio Cohen and the musicians of Orquestra Sinfônica do Teatro Nacional Claudio Santoro (Brasília) for performing Reef on October 8, 2019! It was a great honor to work with you.
I was thrilled to be a part of São Paulo Contemporary Composers Festival 2019!
Thank you to pianist Edward Forstman for performing Starscapes at St. John's Reformed Church in Red Hook, NY on September 1, 2019, and at many other dates and venues. Thanks!
I am deeply grateful that I have been granted tenure, and promotion to the rank of Associate Professor!
Selected choral and piano music now available at sheetmusicplus.com including Starscapes, Sonata for Piano: Lasker, and In the Beginning Was the Word.
I am so thankful to Alisa McCool and all at Samford Dance for creating new dance pieces (In the Round, February 22-24, 2019) around remixes from my new album!
A very special thanks to Dave Lake at WRUU in Savannah, GA for broadcasting music from Birmingham New Music Festival (including my Starscapes for solo piano) on his program Contemporary Classics. Tune in at 107.5 FM or online at WRUU.org from 7 to 9 p.m. EDT on Tuesday evenings.
I was pleased to present a lecture-recital on a sonata by Sophie Maria Westenholz in Vilnius, Lithuania and to perform my solo piano work Starscapes in Rīga, Latvia as part of the College Music Society's 2023 International Conference in the Baltics. I also attended the 150th Anniversary of the Latvian Festival of Song and Dance with 16,000 singers onstage and tens of thousands in attendance at a purpose-built amphitheater in a forest near Rīga; learned more about Arvo Pärt's life and music at the Arvo Pärt Centre in Laulasmaa, Estonia; explored the medieval "old town" district of Tallinn, Estonia; and heard may inspiring lectures, lecture-recitals, and performances.
I am thrilled to announce that the Alabama State Council on the Arts has awarded me a 2024 Artist Fellowship!
Check out the album souls like birds... by Mient Duo (Michael Averett, trumpet and flugelhorn, and Brent Ferguson, guitar), released Jun 9, 2023 on Centaur Records. It includes my Adiaphoron for flugelhorn and electric guitar, along with new music by my colleague Dr. Joel S. Davis and others.
The Idaho Falls Symphony with Maestro Thomas Heuser performed Reef on September 10, 2022 on their "Tales from the High Seas" concert!
New York based Apply Triangle have undertaken a massive project of rehearsing and recording 33 new works for their innovative lineup. The project will be released in three volumes under the overarching title Oxalis Triangularis. I am grateful to be a part of this project with a new work for flute, bass clarinet, electric piano, and fixed media, entitled Room 68.
The violin duo Miolina NYC presented my Dyad along with recent works by Holland Hopson, Cecilia Franke, Jessica Meyer, Alvin Singleton, Geni Skendo, and Lynn Bechtold in recital at The University of Alabama's Moody Hall on March 28, 2022.
Thanks to the Samford University School of the Arts Diversity Series for hosting "Diversifying the Repertoire: A Piano Sonata by Sophie Maria Westenholz" on March 26, 2022.
Thanks to the organizers of the College Music Society Southern Region Conference at Delta State University, where I presented my research "Diversifying the Repertoire: A Piano Sonata by Sophie Maria Westenholz."
Congratulations to all who were involved in the 2021 Magic City Clarinet Festival on August 7, 2021 organized by my friend the extraordinary clarinetist Dr. Brian Viliunas. (One of his albums is on my Discography page!) It was a pleasure to see old friends and make new ones.
Recently on IMSLP I ran across a manuscript of a piano sonata in F minor by German composer Sophie Maria Westenholz (1759–1838). As I studied the manuscript, I felt a desire to help more people discover her wonderful music, and so I have created and typeset a new edition and published it on ISMLP under a 2021 Creative Commons license. I look forward to hearing from pianists who will take advantage of this newly-available edition and perform this sonata.
Congratulations to MIOLINA violin duo on the release of a là BAMA on Composers Concordance Records, a collection of works by Alabama composers that includes my composition Dyad.
Thrilled to announce the release of my Quartet for Strings on the 2-CD collection Alabama String Quartets, performed by Amernet String Quartet on MSR Classics.
I am grateful to announce selection of my Quartet for Strings for the Sixty-Third National Conference of The College Music Society in Miami, Florida, October 22–24, 2020, which will be presented 100% online this year for safety reasons. The work will be performed by the extraordinary Amernet String Quartet. Thank you, CMS, and thank you, Amernet String Quartet!
Thank you to the ALABAMA ALL-STATE ORCHESTRA ASSOCIATION for selecting my Reef as the winner of the 2020 Composition Contest! I am honored that my work was selected from among submissions from across the country, and I was thrilled to be the composer-in-residence for this year's All-State Festival!
A very special thanks to Maestro Claudio Cohen and the musicians of Orquestra Sinfônica do Teatro Nacional Claudio Santoro (Brasília) for performing Reef on October 8, 2019! It was a great honor to work with you.
I was thrilled to be a part of São Paulo Contemporary Composers Festival 2019!
Thank you to pianist Edward Forstman for performing Starscapes at St. John's Reformed Church in Red Hook, NY on September 1, 2019, and at many other dates and venues. Thanks!
I am deeply grateful that I have been granted tenure, and promotion to the rank of Associate Professor!
Selected choral and piano music now available at sheetmusicplus.com including Starscapes, Sonata for Piano: Lasker, and In the Beginning Was the Word.
I am so thankful to Alisa McCool and all at Samford Dance for creating new dance pieces (In the Round, February 22-24, 2019) around remixes from my new album!
A very special thanks to Dave Lake at WRUU in Savannah, GA for broadcasting music from Birmingham New Music Festival (including my Starscapes for solo piano) on his program Contemporary Classics. Tune in at 107.5 FM or online at WRUU.org from 7 to 9 p.m. EDT on Tuesday evenings.