Three Concertos

Abstract

I am grateful to Richard Auldon Clark, the gifted and devoted men and women of the Manhattan chamber orchestra, and to the three great soloists (Charles Castleman, Nathaniel Rosen, and Kenneth Pasmanick) for their magnificent work in making these three of my favorite and most performed concertos available to a new generation of listeners and musicians. As a composer who also plays all kind of music which a variety of ensembles around world, I find that writing a concerto is a special challenge and adventure----soaring through music as if one were leaping off the side of a mountain to go hang-gliding. Concertos are that exhilarating to compose! It’s almost like being a novelist or a playwright as well as a musician. Knowing the skills and creativity that artistic musicians bring the work through their personalities, the concerto becomes a special combination of the composer´s dream and the soloist’s magic. These three first recording are the ultimate realization of those dreams. Violin Concerto Written for Charles Castleman with support from a ford foundation Grant, this concerto premiered with Charles and the St. Louis symphony under the direction of Leonard slatkin on May 2, 1981. Honor Song for Sitting Bull In January 1981, I performed with Floyd “Red Crow” Westerman, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Native American actor Will Samsomp at the Mikasookie All-Indian Arts Festival in Florida. Bassoon Concerto Kenneth Pasmanick and I met in the late 1940s when he began his tenure as solo bassoon with the National Symphonic musicians at that time who was no only interested in the music Charles Parker and Dizzy Gillespie but who could improvise in the style as well---as we did for Charlie Parker in my basement apartment in Washington during the 195-1952 season, when I was extra horn with the National Symphony.