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.
SPRING/SUMMER 2023 EVENTS
March 3: Trombonist Matthew Russo will reprise his recital program of February 24 at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. The concert will be part of Muhlenberg's annual New Music Festival. You can hear my con sordino for trombone alone along with a diverse and fascinating array of recent music. The free concert will take place in the college's Egner Memorial Chapel at 7:30 pm.
March 19: The Concordia Sante Fe Wind Orchestra will give the first performance of my Stone Colors: Three Desert Images in a free concert at the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe at 2 pm. My colleague and friend Glen Adsit will conduct. The work was written in memory of another friend and colleague, Eric Rombach-Kendall. Eric was Director of Bands at the University of New Mexico for three decades and commissioned more music from me than any other conductor.
March 26: The Washburn University Wind Ensemble under the direction of Professor J. Thomas Seddon IV will perform my new work titled Stone Colors: Three Desert Images at 3 pm in White Concert Hall on the Topeka, KS campus. The concert is free.
April 16: Saxophonist Hannah Wren, a student at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, will perform my Three Resonant Pieces for alto saxophone and piano on her senior recital. The recital will be at 6 pm in the Moore Musical Arts Building's Choral Room on the Bowling Green campus.
April 28: Members of the Temple University Wind Symphony will perform Rossiniana for woodwind octet at 7:30 pm in the Temple Performing Arts Center on the Philadelphia campus. Dr. Patricia Cornett will conduct the free concert.
April 29: The Hartt Wind Ensemble under the direction of Glen Adsit will perform Stone Colors: Three Desert Images at 7:30 pm in the Lincoln Theater on the University of Hartford campus. The concert is free.
May 1: The Hartt Wind Ensemble will record my Stone Colors: Three Desert Images for a recording to be issued on the Naxos label. The session will take place in the Lincoln Theater on the University of Hartford campus.
June 20: Trombonist Haim Avitsur will record my Tree of Life at the Hartt School's Millard Auditorium. Glen Adsit will conduct an all-star string orchestra with harpist Susan Knapp Thomas. Justin Kurtz will be our recordist.
September 17: The US Coast Guard Band will perform my Rossiniana on a free concert at 2pm in Leamy Hall on the campus of the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. Lieutenant Commander Adam Williamson will conduct an octet of players from this great ensemble.
September 19: I will return to the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT for a recording session with the US Coast Guard Band which will record Rossiniana, the fifth recording for a CD which should be released next year.
United States Coast Guard Band Performs and Records
Six Romances After Mendelssohn
Lieutenant Commander Adam Williamson
The United States Coast Guard Band's Chamber Winds ensemble performed my Six Romances After Mendelssohn in three locations in Connecticut this past September. Lieutenant Commander Adam Williamson conducted the ensemble. The musicians then recorded the work at Leamy Hall on the campus of the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut on September 20. This was the fourth of six works to be recording by the band for an all-Gryc compact disc.
Trombonist Haim Avitsur
Performs
Tree of Life with the
Hartt Sinfonietta
Haim Avitsur
International trombone soloist and recording artist Haim Avitsur performed my work for trombone, harp, and string orchestra with the Hartt School's Philharmonia on September 16 in the University of Hartford's Lincoln Theater. Avitsur, who requested the work, is Hartt's professor of trombone. Avitsur's latest CD release, Mostly Bach, Vol. III, is a demonstration of this performer's ability to make the trombone a vehicle for the most intimate kind of musical expression.
Tree of Life is a somber yet hopeful meditation composed as a response to the murders of eleven members of the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburg in 2018. The work is dedicated to the memory of the victims. The piece is not principally a lament but rather a statement of solidarity with minority groups of every kind and of rededication to the ideals of equality and justice for all in our country.
Dutch Duo Perform
"Music for Tuba and Timpani" on New CD
Cora Dellebeke and Stefan Knuijt
Knuijt en Dellebeke, a remarkable mother/son duo from the Netherlands, has recorded my Music for Tuba and Timpani for a CD issued by Zefir Records in 2021. Percussionist Cora Dellebeke and her son, tubist Stefan Knuijt lead independent musical lives. Cora performs with the Zeeland Orchestra, and Stefan plays in the Marine Chapel of the Royal Navy. Cora is also a conductor and teacher, while Stefan is active as a composer and arranger. The duo performed the works on their new CD in concert on September 19, 2021 in the Zeeuwse Concert Hall in Middelburg, Netherlands. The recording, both in digital as well as CD form, is available from many retailers including Amazon, Walmart, and Tower Records.
I found an amusing Dutch review of my piece that reads in translation as follows: The American composer Stephen Cyrc [sic] is represented with his three-part "Music for Tuba and Timpani', not a pompous work, but on the other hand not harassing the ear or the perception. Both musicians expressively dig as deep as possible and know how to turn it into a true sound festival."
First African Performance Features Egyptian Oboist
Wessam Amin
Renowned Egyptian oboist Wessam Amin performed my Fantasy Variations on a Theme of Bela Bartok with his Cairo Classical Ensemble on October 31, 2021. This was my first performance on the African continent. The concert took place in the beautiful Malak Gabr Theater, part of the New Cairo Center for the Arts on the campus of the American University in Cairo. Wessam Amin is the principal oboist with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra and is Professor of Oboe at the Cairo Conservatoire. The instrumentation of the Cairo Classical Ensemble is oboe and string quartet, the exact instrumentation of the Fantasy Variations. I shared the program with three other living composers who are on the faculty of the AUC: Egyptian Ashraf Fouad, Austrian-born Amr Okba and American composer and choral conductor John Baboukis. The concert was live-streamed with excellent audio quality and good camera work. The archived performance can be watched at: https://youtu.be/YZiCOH6O_xs
