News and Performances
The music that I have chosen for my news page is the second movement from my brass quintet,
Desert Light. Click on the arrow to hear it if it's not already playing.
2025 Winter/Spring Events​​​​​​
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February 2: Oboe virtuoso Nancy Ambrose King performs my Three Excursions for Solo Oboe at the Penn State Double Reed Day in the Music Building on the State College campus.
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February 2: The United States Coast Guard Band will premiere my Riding The Crest, a work that the band commissioned for its centenary year of 2025. The concert will take place at Leamy Hall on the US Coast Guard Academy campus in New London, CT at 2 pm. There is no admission charge.
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February 8: My composition for solo harp and wind orchestra, Spring Rain, will be performed in Denver by harpist Jenna Hunt and the Colorado Wind Ensemble under the direction of David Kish. The concert will commence at 7:30 pm in the King Center Concert Hall at 855 Lawrence Way Admission is charged.
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February 13: The US Coast Guard Band commissioned me to compose a short opening piece titled Riding the Crest in celebration of the band's centenary. The piece will be performed on every concert of its tour of northwestern states. The tour starts with a performance at McClatchy High School in Sacramento, California. The concert begins at 7:30 pm in the school's auditorium. All USCGB concerts are free, but tickets must be procured before the concert. Visit https://www.ticketleap.events/events/us-coast-guard-band to obtain free tickets. You can obtain tickets for all the band's tour concerts (listed below) via this link.
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February 14: The​ Coast Guard Band's northwestern tour continues with a performance at C.K Price Middle School in Orland, California at 7 pm.
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February 15: The​ Coast Guard Band performs my Riding The Crest again on a concert at North Medford High School in Medford, Oregon at 7 pm.​
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February 16: My arrangement of Debussy's piano prelude titled The girl with the flaxen hair will performed by the Harmonie North Chamber Winds under conductor Timothy Cook. The 3 pm concert will be held in the United Methodist Church (429 Brainerd Ave.) Libertyville, Illinois. This is a free concert.
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February 16: The Coast Guard Band presents a concert at Sheldon High School in Eugene, Oregon at 3 pm when it performs my Riding the Crest once again.
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February 18: The Coast Guard Band presents a concert at West Salem High School in Salem, Oregon at 3 pm when it performs my Riding the Crest once again.​
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February 19: The Coast Guard Band continues its tour with a concert at Lincoln High School in Portland Oregon at 7 pm when it will perform my Riding the Crest.
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February 20: The next concert of the Coast Guard Band's tour takes place at the Lagerquist Concert Hall on the campus of Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington at 7 pm.
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February 21: The Coast Guard Band performs my Riding The Crest next on a concert at Tumwater High School in Tumwater, Washington at 7 pm.
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February 22: The Coast Guard Band performs my Riding The Crest on a concert at Western Washington University's Performing Arts Center in Bellingham, Washington at 7 pm.
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February 23: The Coast Guard Band performs my Riding The Crest again on a concert at the Hertz Concert Hall at Central Washington University in Ellensburg at 7 pm.
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February 24: The last concert of the Coast Guard Band's tour will take place at Mount Si High School Performing Arts Center in Snoqualmie, Washington at 7 pm.
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March 3: Tubist Dillan Smakal will perform my Music for Tuba and Timpani on his senior recital at the University of Central Arkansas. The performance begins at 7:30 pm in the Recital Hall of the School of Fine Arts on the Conway campus.
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March 14: Stone Colors will be performed by the University of New Mexico Wind Symphony under the direction of Emily Moss at 7:30 pm in Popejoy Hall on the Albuquerque campus. This piece was composed in memory of longtime UNM Director of Bands Eric Rombach-Kendall. I will be in Albuquerque to hear the performance.​
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March 19: Nancy Ambrose King will perform my Three Excursions for Solo Oboe at the University of Michigan's Medical School as part of the school's Medical Pathways in the Arts program. The med school promotes participation in the arts by its students. In the course of her recital, Nancy will ""explore how music and musicians reflect and react to their lived experience."
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March 31: Nancy Ambrose King performs my Three Excursions for Solo Oboe at a master class and recital that she is giving at the University of Denver.
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April 4: A new CD on the Navona label with my work Five American Portraits for Five Wind Instruments will be released. The CD titled Windswept Vol. III features the fabulous Prague-based Belfiato Quintet. The album will be available in Dolby Atmos and also as a visual album.
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April 7: Donath Rehm, a young tuba virtuoso from Germany, will perform my Music for Tuba and Timpani at 7:30 pm in the Schillertheater in the capital city of Berlin. He is currently a master's student at the Berlin University of Arts, but already he has performed as a substitute in such orchestras as the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Kiel Philharmonic, and the Komisch Oper Berlin which is sponsoring this chamber music concert titled Next Generation II.
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April 10: Harpist Megan Sesma will perform my piece for harp and band, Spring Rain, with the University of Connecticut Wind Ensemble at 8 pm in Von der Mehden Recital Hall on the Storrs campus. Megan commissioned me to compose the work which she premiered with the United States Coast Guard Band.
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April 17: Clarinetist Linus Poon will perform my Dance Concerto with piano accompaniment on a graduate student recital at 8 pm in Berkman Recital Hall at the Hartt School of the University of Hartford. I will be there to hear this wonderful young musician perform my piece.
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April 24: The Keene State College Concert Band will perform my Stone Colors: Three Desert Images on a concert at 7:30 pm in the Redfern Arts Center on the Keene, New Hampshire campus. John Hart will conduct the program, and I will be there.
US Coast Guard Band Performs Two Gryc Works
at the Midwest Clinic
The US Coast Guard band under the direction of Adam Williamson was the featured ensemble at the Midwest Clinic, the world's largest conference for music educators which takes place every year in Chicago. A woodwind octet performed my Rossiniana at a the 8:15 am concert on December 18, and harp soloist Megan Sesma performed my Spring Rain with the band at a 5:30 concert on the same day. I attended both performances which were sensational and enthusiastically received by an audience of over 3,500 conference attendees.
Valerie Whitney CD Features "Reflections on a Southern Hymn"
Summit Records has released a new CD titled COURAGE! that features virtuoso horn player Valerie Whitney. Included the program of nine works is my for solo horn titled Reflections on a Southern Hymn. Only one piece out of the nine works on the diverse program uses piano to accompany the horn. Valerie says that my piece was one of the first she bought for her library after beginning to play the horn at age 10. She has performed with the Chicago Symphony, Chicago Lyric Opera, Milwaukee Symphony and Florida Symphony. Valerie now teaches at the University of British Columbia. If you love the horn, you need to get this amazing CD.
Belfiato Wind Quintet
records "Five American Portraits"
in Prague, Czechia
I traveled to Prague, Czechia in May for a recording session with the Belfiato wind quintet which is making a compilation CD of new American works for Parma Records. The group recorded an older work of mine, the Five American Portraits for Five Wind Instruments from 1987. The virtuosity of these players is amazing, and producer Jan Kosulic was perfectly in sync with the musicians. Our recording studio was an old church in Prague with beautiful acoustics. A video to accompany the studio recording will also be produced. The CD should drop in 2025.