You are invited to visit the composer’s webiste at www.danwelcher.com.

Annual Updates

2009

Symphony No. 5 for large orchestra will be premiered by the Austin (TX) Symphony Orchestra under Peter Bay on May 1-2, 2009, in the Long Center for the Performing Arts. This work was commissioned as a gift to the Austin Symphony by a generous group of Austin music lovers led by radio station KMFA-FM. A new recording of all three of the composer’s string quartets has just been completed by the Cassatt String Quartet; the CD will be released on Naxos American Classics in September 2009.

PREMIERES

String Quartet No. 3 (Cassatt) was introduced March 14, 2008, by the Cassatt Quartet, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, IL. Dante Dances for clarinet and chamber orchestra was first heard in a March 25 performance by Richard MacDowell and the University of Texas New Music Ensemble, directed by the composer; MacDowell performed the work again July 4, with the University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC) ensemble, ClarFest International Convention Kansas City, MO. Four Personal Ads for soprano and piano (text: Beth Gylys) was presented July 11 by Mela Sarajane Daley and Michelle Schumann, Austin (TX) Chamber Music Festival. The woodwind quintet Teaching the World to Sing received its premiere August 7, Chamber Music Conference of the Northeast, Bennington, VT; on August 9, at the same conference, Joseph Anderer, Anna Lim, and Jon Klibanoff performed Partita for horn, violin, and piano.

PERFORMANCES

Symphony No. 4 (American Visionary) for wind ensemble was presented October 11, 2007, by the Ithaca College Wind Ensemble under the direction of Stephen Peterson. The composer led a performance of Songs Without Words for wind ensemble, May 5, 2008, Chicago College of the Performing Arts (Roosevelt University); the same concert included performances of Spumante and Perpetual Song, conducted by Stephen Squires. The Empire State Youth Orchestra, led by Helen Cha-Pyo, also performed Spumante June 1, Schenectedy, NY.

PUBLICATIONS

Laboring Songs, Circular Marches, Perpetual Song, Songs Without Words, Minstrels of the Kells, Symphony No. 4 (American Visionary), and Arches, all full scores; Nocturne for Dani, solo piano; I Dream A World, SATB, solo cello, piano; all by Theodore Presser.

RECORDINGS

All the Words to All the Songs, flutist Alexa Still, pianist Stephen Gosling; Koch International Classics, KIC CD-7658. Firewing: The Flame and the Moth, oboist Erin Hannigan, percussionists Drew Land and Dan Florio; Crystal Records CD 820.

2007

Premieres

Jackpot, a celebratory overture for large orchestra, was introduced September 17, 2005, by the commissioning orchestra, the Las Vegas (NV) Philharmonic, under the direction of Harold Leighton Weller. Speaker Red McCombs and the University of Texas Wind Ensemble presented the commissioned work Symphony No. 4 (American Visionary) for large wind ensemble, on November 10, led by conductor Jerry Junkin. The Moerae, for flute, oboe, and bassoon, was premiered April 1, 2006, by Marianne Gedgian, Rebecca Henderson, Kristin Wolfe Jensen, and Rick Rowley, University of Texas. Douglas Harvey and Nadine Shank presented the commissioned works A Waltz for Paul and Meditation and Scherzo, both for cello and piano, June 19, Steinway Hall, New York, NY.

Performances

The Rockford (IL) Symphony performed Concerto for Timpani and Orchestra on September 24, 2005. Zion, for wind ensemble, was presented by the Southern Illinois University Wind Ensemble. Mill Songs for oboe and bassoon were heard June 10, 2006, at the Round Top (TX) Festival, as performed by Rebecca Henderson and Benjamin Kamins. The Texas Festival Orchestra performed Spumante: A Festive Overture, Round Top, TX, while the Euclid Quartet presented Harbor Music (String Quartet No. 2), at Williamstown, MA.

Recordings

Prairie Light: Three Texas Watercolors of Georgia O’Keefe, Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, and Haleakala: How Maui Snared the Sun; narrator Richard Chamberlain, clarinetist Bil Jackson, Honolulu (HI) Symphony, conducted by Donald Johanos; Naxos American Classics/iTunes. Emily Dickinson in Song includes “Go Slow, My Soul” for voice and piano (after Dickinson), mezzo-soprano Virginia Dupuy, pianist Shields Collins-Bray; Gasparo CD #360.