PREMIERE OF RIVERS ASCENDING: Concerto for Tuba
Hearing the first performance of your music never gets old. This past Saturday at Brendle Recital Hall on the campus of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC the Piedmont Wind Symphony premiered RIVERS ASCENDING for tuba and wind ensemble. You never really know how a piece will be received or what kind of future it may have, but this performance sounded better than I imagined.
Congratulations to the astounding tuba soloist Brent Harvey, conductor Mark Norman, and the ensemble. This is a crackerjack all-pro group backed by an equally professional organization, all under the direction of Mark Norman. Check them out at: https://www.pwsymphony.org/.
The piece will be available Feb. 1, 2027 after the consortium premieres. For now, a free PDF perusal score is available upon request.
Many thanks to Mark Norman for leading the consortium and these conductors who supported the work.
- Piedmont Wind Symphony, Dr. Mark Norman, Conductor
- University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Dr. Mark Norman, Conductor
- Peabody Conservatory, Dr. Harlan Parker, Conductor
- University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Michael Garasi, Conductor
- Arkansas Tech University, Dr. Daniel Belongia, conductor
- Messiah University, Dr. James Colonna, conductor
Program Notes
I. Calling
II. Spirals Rising
III. Floating in Hope
Water is a timeless metaphor for many things — life, renewal, warning, hope. Rivers are shaped by gravity and move through valleys and down hills, but they do not ascend. But, what if they did like vertical rivers that rise? Water can be a liquid, frozen as a solid, or heated into a gas. As steam, it’s free to rise like an ascending river. In a way, rivers can rise, but only after they’ve been transformed. I found this to be an apt metaphor for this music. My thoughts were drawn to memories of rivers and rivers as a metaphor for hope and change.
You wouldn’t think a tuba can sing, but it can. I was inspired by the idea of the tuba sounding in a different way. This work explores the tuba’s surprising lyrical range. Like rivers ascending, the tuba emerges from the depths to soar and sing. Duration: 17 minutes.