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.
FALL 2022/WINTER 2023 EVENTS
September 14: The US Coast Guard Band Chamber Players will perform my Six Romances After Mendelssohn for ten wind instruments in a concert at Eastern Connecticut State University's Fine Arts Instructional Center Concert Hall at 306 High Street in Willimantic. Lieutenant Commander Adam Williamson will conduct. The concert begins at 7:30 pm. All USCG Band concerts are free.
September 16: The US Coast Guard Band Chamber Players will perform my Six Romances After Mendelssohn for ten wind instruments again in a concert at the University of Connecticut at Storrs. The matinee concert was be at 1:25 pm in von der Mehden Recital Hall on the Storrs campus.
September 16: Tree of Life for trombone, harp and strings will be performed by trombone soloist Haim Avitsur and the Hartt Philharmonia. The work is my response to the murders at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburg in 2018. The concert will take place in Lincoln Theater on the University of Hartford campus at 7:30 pm. Off campus guests must show proof of Covid vaccination and wear a mask. Admission is free but concert attendees must registration at: https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?actions=7&p=1
September 19: The US Coast Guard Band Chamber Players will perform my Six Romances After Mendelssohn one last time at a 7 pm concert at East Hampton High in East Hampton, Connecticut.
September 20: I will travel to the US Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut for a recording session with the US Coast Guard Band. This will be the third of five recording sessions that will result in a compact disc with an all-Gryc program.
October 19: The University of New Mexico Wind Symphony will perform my little bassoon concerto, titled Guignol, with soloist Denise Reig Turner. Chad Simons will conduct. The concert will be at 7:30 pm in Popejoy Hall on the Albuquerque campus. Tickets for the event range from $5 to $10.
November 1: Flutist Kathy Weidenfeller will perform my Five Preludes for Flute Alone at the Huopalahti Church in the town of Huopalahti in Finland. Kathy is a doctoral student at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki where she is also a lecturer.
November 19: Evensong, my piece for trumpet and wind ensemble, will be performed by Bryce Call, the newly appointed trumpet professor at Washburn University, who will be accompanied by the Washburn University Wind Ensemble conducted by J. Thomas Seddon. The free concert will take place at 5 pm at White Hall on the Topeka campus.
December 5: Trumpeter Bryce Call will perform my Evensong in the version with piano accompaniment on a faculty recital at 7:30 pm in White Concert Hall on the campus of Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas.
February 16: The New World Trio (violin, cello, piano) will perform my Sweet Prospect during two programs for the students at Noah Webster Micro Society Magnate School in Hartford, Connecticut. I'm looking forward to talking to a group of third and fourth graders and, later, a group of middle schoolers.
February 21: The University of North Carolina's Wind Ensemble will perform my bassoon concerto, titled Guignol, and my orchestration of Debussy's "General Lavine" -- eccentric on the university's Greensboro campus. Both works will feature bassoonist and UNCG faculty member Michael Burns as soloist. Jonathan Caldwell will direct the ensemble. The free concert will take place in the UNCG Auditorium at 7:30.
February 25: The Lawrence University Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Andrew Mast, will perform Guignol: Concerto for Bassoon and Small Orchestra of Winds and Percussion in the university's Memorial Chapel at 8 pm. The soloist will be bassoonist and university professor Carl Rath. The concert is free of charge.
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
