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Song Cycles

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 Exhortation! for Voice, Piano and Violin - 1999.  From the poetry of Charles Bukowski.  Revised in  September, 2013.

  • The Genius of the Crowd [Voice and Piano] 

  • Counsel [Voice and Piano] 

  • The Laughing Heart [Voice and Piano] 

  • It's Not Who Lived Here [Voice and Violin] 

  • Vocalise [Voice and Violin] 

  • These Things [Voice, Piano and Violin] 

  • A Trick to Dull Our Bleeding [Voice, Piano and Violin] 

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    "It's Not Who Lived Here" and "Vocalise" was premiered on April 28, 2001 at the Lutheran Church of      Honolulu by the Stark Duo, Darel Stark, violin and Georgine Stark, soprano voice.

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 Blake Song Cycle - Awake Humanity to Nature's Beauty! for Soprano, Guitar, Cello and Piano - 2007    (based on the poetry  of William Blake)

  • Prologue (for guitar and piano) 

  • To Morning (for soprano, guitar and piano)

  • Memory, Hither Come (for soprano and guitar) 

  • Innocence and Virtue Meet (for soprano, guitar, piano and cello) 

  • Awake Humanity to Nature's Beauty! (for guitar and piano) 

  • A Cradle Song (for soprano) 

  • To The Evening Star (for soprano and piano)

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 Blake Song Cycle - Awake Humanity to Nature’s Beauty! - Violin Version - for Soprano, Violin, Cello and  Piano - 2011 (a  transcription from the preceding song cycle)

  • Prologue

  • To Morning

  • Memory, Hither Come

  • Innocence and Virtue Meet

  • Awake Humanity to Nature’s Beauty!

  • A Cradle Song

  • To the Evening Star

  • True Love Doth Pass Away!

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   Premiered by the Stark Duo, Hawaii Symphony violinist Darel Stark and mezzo soprano Georgine            Stark, with pianist Sachi P. Hirakouji and cellist I-Bei Lin on August 25, 2012, at the Hawaii PBS Radio      Station, Honolulu.

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 The Fruit is Ripening. for Soprano and Tenor Voices, Clarinet in b-flat, Horn in f, Harp, Chimes, Piano,  Violin and Cello - 2022 (based on the poetry of the composer)

  • Extract from Metamorphosis No. 9 - full ensemble

  • Resonance - for tenor, horn, piano, violin and cello

  • Extract from Upon Lilac Hills - for soprano, tenor, piano, chimes

  • Extract from Island Paradise - for soprano, clarinet in b-flat and piano

  • Crafted Stardust - full ensemble

 

     These poems were originally set to music in 2003 during the Narration with Improvisation sessions          and several of them appeared in a 2012 unaccompanied choral work.  

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Works for Orchestra

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 Anguish in Every Household – 2008-10

 

 The Transfiguration of Giovanni Baudino for Piano and Orchestra – 2008-10

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 Do You Have an E.R. for Music? - 2012

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 Symphony No. 1 – 2012-13  (updated 2024)

  • I.   Passing On Ancient Skills 

  • II.  Historical Facts and Folly 

  • III. Ancestral Devotions - (The World is like a Single Point) 

  • IV. Unmasking the Past 

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 The Dancing Multiverse String Revival Sessions (Orchestral Suite I) - 2013

  • I.   In A Cartesian Space

  • II.  Ancestral Dreams

  • III. Sightless

  • IV. Everything is 9

  • V.  Symmetry in Motion

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 Symphony No. 2 - (The Circle of Fire) - 2013

  • I.   A Recording is the Antithesis of his Aesthetic

  • II.  Line and Polyphony

  • III. The Rein Which Resists Allegory Run Riot

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 Let Freedom Ring - 2015

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    Music from the 5th part of the Guitar Suite of the same name.  

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 Awakenings (Orchestral Suite II) - 2015-16​

  • I.   Awake from a Dream

  • II.  Wake Up to Who You Are

  • III. Being and Becoming

  • IV. We Live in Our Imaginations

  • V.  The Great Awakening (1740-1742)

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 The Processional - 2017​

  • I.  Andante

  • II. Solenne

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 Symphony No. 3 - 2017​

  • I.   To Morning

  • II.  Gestural Rituals

  • III. In The Garden of Earthly Delights

           Part 1 - The Craving

           Part 2 - The Quest

           Part 3 - The Seduction

  • IV.  Let The Evening Stillness Arouse

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 Music From the Ethereal Side of Paradise for Chamber Orchestra - 2017

  •  I.   Leggera e Ariosa (The Dream Curator)

  •  II.  Suspensefully Drammatico (Frolicsome Cleo)

  •  III. Tranquillo (The Repository of Dreams)

  •  IV. Intenso (Busy Becoming Something)

  •  V.  Meditazione Lenta (On the Slopes of Mauna Kea)

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 Humoresque for Guitar and Small Orchestra - 2018

​      (A wedding gift for Chris and Cinzia)

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 Orchestra Concerto: Longinus, On Sublimity - 2019

  • Maestoso, Intenso  (Great Thoughts)

  • Spirito, Calma (Noble Diction)

  • Intenso, Cantabile, Drammatico (Strong Emotions)

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 Symphony No. 4 - 2020

  • I.   The Fertile Mind 

  • II.  The Deep Understanding

  • III. The Cultivated Taste

  • IV. The Prodigy 

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 Hello Thanatos, Eros Calling (Orchestral Suite III) - 2020-2021

  • I. The Fusion 

  • II. Carving Higher Ideals (The Desire to Create)

  • III. Opening the Box of Dreams

  • IV. Dionysian Currents

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 Phantasmamusica - 2021

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​ Symphony No. 5 - Classic Beauty Over Surface Novelty (Terminal Originality) - 2022-2023

  • I. Triumphed Over Obstacles

  • II. Mantra: Cherished Ideals

  • III. Endured Loneliness

  • IV. Realized Aspirations

 

 Funeral Dirge: Permanence in Change - 2023

​ Passing on Ancient Skills for Piano and Orchestra - 2024

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Works for Concert Band

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 Transcendence in the Age of War – 2004-09 (In Memory of 9-11) 

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 Appeasement and Containment – (The Lies Fly By) - 2018 

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 Caffeine and Cortisol – (Stimulate, Activate, Motivate) - 2018 

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 No Taste for Fornication - 2020

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 Jason and Pelias  (Jason Nails a Bough to the Prow of the Argo) - 2023

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Works for String Orchestra

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​ Desiderio – 2004

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 Let Thy Mind Be Still - after a Taoist meditation by Deng Ming-Doa. - 2009

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 Starry Night - after Van Gogh, Starry Night over the Rhone 1888, Mussee d’Orsay, Paris - 2009

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 Nothing Shall Come of This (A Lament for Unheard Music) - 2009

    “Unheard music is more valuable than music heard.”  JAC 

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  The Greatest Medicine is the Emptiness of Everything for String Orchestra - 2012 - Revised 2020 (a         transcription from a work for solo piano of the same name)

    (To the memory of COVID-19 victims)

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 The Greatest Goodness is a Peaceful Mind for String Orchestra - 2012 - Revised 2020 (a transcription    from a work for solo piano of the same name)

     (To the memory of COVID-19 victims)

 

 Bright Stillness (You Are My Desire) - 2013

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 Awakenings - 2013

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 The Rhetoric and Mythos of Belief  (In memory of Bill Dresser) - 2014​

  • Part I -   Profondo

  • Part II -  Animato - Largo

  • Part III - Tranquillo - (Existential Loneliness, as a background for joy and sorrow)

  • Part IV - Misterioso/Meditativo (Bill's Memorial Piece - Your Heart Rests Within Mine)

  • Part V -  Intenso

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 Move Towards the Light (Your Destiny Awaits You) - 2015

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 Seeds of Doubt - 2018

     Premiered by the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra on 8-13-2020.

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 Quantum Dice (God Does Not Play Dice with the Universe) - 2019​​

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 Busy Being Born - 2022

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 Absorbed From Beginning to End - 2024 

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 Perilous Times - 2024

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Works for Chorus

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 Music for Choir (Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass) - 2012 

    (From John’s poetry set to music)

  • Little Gems

  • Crafted Stardust

  • Metamorphosis

  • One Note at a Time

  • She Saw the Rainbow

  • Moon Dust

  • Resonance

  • On The Way to a Sunset

  • Metamorphosis No. 9

 

 Jade Ponds - 2017

     A reverent journey through nature.  The poem, Jade Ponds, written by the composer (2001) and set        to music.

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 Music for Choir and Orchestra - 2019 - 2020

  •  Erlkong  (c. 1782) 

  •  Welcome and Farewell  (1771; 1789)

  •  Extract from Unbounded  (1814-15) - (First Stanza)

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   Poems by Goethe set to music and translated to English: from The Essential Goethe,  Edited by              Matthew Bell, Princeton University Press, 2016.

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 Rosebud in the Heather (1771) - 2020 

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   A poem by Goethe set to music and translated to English: from The Essential Goethe,  Edited by            Matthew Bell, Princeton University Press, 2016.  For children to sing.

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 Transcendence After Loss for Choir, Piano, Harp, Horn in F, Tuba and Cello - 2020

  • Epigraph from Landscape with Female Figure (for Soprano Voice)

  • Extract from "Still Life with Jonquils" (for SATB and Harp)

  • Extract from "Love Song Ending with a Line by Horace" (for SATB and Piano)

  • Grief  (for SATB, Piano, Horn in F, Tuba, and Cello)

  • What I Will Be When I Cannot Be with You (for Soprano, SATB, Piano and Harp)

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    All titles are from Landscape with Female Figure: New & Selected Poems by Andrea Hollander, 1982-     2012 (Autumn House Press, 2013).  Set to music with permission from the author.

 

​ Dark Days for Choir and Orchestra (Excerpts from John's poem set to music) - 2020

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 Artistic Ideals - for Choir and Large Ensemble - 2021

   (Clarinet in B-flat, Tenor Sax, Bassoon, Horn in F, Trumpet in C, Marimba, Timpani, Xylophone, Piano,       SATBB, and  DB)

  I. Maintaining Independence - Text by Goethe; Schopenhauer

  II. Freedom in Spontaneity - Text by Emerson

  III. The Arduous Victory -  Text by Lev Shestov  

  IV. Be Original At Your Peril - Text by Tennyson; Hocking; Daniel G. Mason and Emerson

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Songs

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 The Lady Who Loves the Bass - 2007 

​   Scored for alto voice and double bass.

   Lyrics, John A. Carollo 

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 Requiem Aeternam Dona Eis - 2014 (in memory of Bill)

   Scored for alto voice and piano.

   John's poem 'For the Dearly Departed' (2013) set to music.

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 A Time Not Long Ago  – 2018 

   Scored for MS and SATB with Clarinet in B-flat, Cornet, Tuba, Violin, Cello and Piano.   

   John's poem of the same name set to music

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 The Dance - 2024

   Scored for tenor voice and piano.

   Excerpt from John's poem of the same name set to music.

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 Damaged by Alien Constructs for Voice and Small Ensemble - 2024

   For Horn in F, Xylophone, Chimes, Piano, Tenor Voice and Cello.

   Text by John A. Carollo

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Works for Synthesizer

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 Shifting Patterns - 2003

 N° 1. Sunrise

 N° 2. Hope for Peace

 N° 3. Circus Ride

 N° 4. Desperate for Love

 N° 5. Children at Play

 N° 6. The Looking Glass

 N° 7. Sail Through Time

 N° 8. The Voice Brigade

 N° 9. Heaven's Door

 N° 10. Sonic Beauty

 N° 11. Owl's Wisdom

 N° 12. Oxymoron

 N° 13. Overturn Tyranny's Rule

 N° 14. Submerged

 N° 15. Loving Life

 N° 16. The Mixer

 N° 17. Creation

 N° 18. Mystic Rose

 N° 19. Joy Ride

 N° 20. Celestial Longitude

 N° 21. Cascading Bells

 N° 22. Sunsets for Dolls in Paradise

 N° 23. Dazzlingly Brilliant Shadows

 N° 24. Exit to China

 N° 25. Frozen Membrane

 N° 26. Intergalactic Flight

 N° 27. The Blue Horizon

 N° 28. Drifting Over Peaceful Valleys

 N° 29. Indigenous Jade

 N° 30. Wooden Shoes for Asia Minor

 N° 31. Herald in the New Year

 N° 32. Salvation Will Come Someday

 N° 33. Universal Perfection

 N° 34. Morning Wonder

 N° 35. Walking Down Cobbled Lanes

 N° 36. Violet Dreams

 N° 37. Elve's Playground

 N° 38. Exorcise Ghosts

 N° 39. Orange Strawberry Cakes

 N° 40. Strumming and Plucking for Two

 N° 41. Express a Tone

 N° 42. Glass Ruby Slippers

 N° 43. Ocean Waves 90 Feet High

 N° 44. Velvet Waves [Poem set to music]

 N° 45. Cascading Ventures

 N° 46. Star Reach

 N° 47. Passion Play [Poem set to music]

 N° 48. Now Take on the Day

 N° 49. Waltz

 N° 50. Bright Monday

 N° 51. Mole Dance

 

  This set of 51 pieces for synthesizer began with the idea of putting written musical scores through         various timbres of the  synthesizer, e.g., "fantasia" "dunes" "glass voices" or "albion", etc.

 

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 Venus Sands (Suite for Synthesizer) - 2003

 N° 1. Venusia

 N° 2. Time Search on Venus Sands 

 N° 3. Venus and Adonis

 N° 4. Venus de Milo

 N° 5. Venus Moon

 N° 6. Venus Atmosphere

 N° 7. Earth's Twin

 N° 8. I Took a Walk on the Venusian Plane

 N° 9. Venus Sunset [Improvisation]

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  This 9-movement work continues the experimentations of Shifting Patterns.

 

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 Crafted Stardust (Improvisations with Narrations for Synthesizer, Piano and Voice)

 N° 1. By the Crystal Shore [Instrumental]

 N° 2. Silver Tunes

 N° 3. Little Gems

 N° 4. Crafted Stardust

 N° 5. Scaffolding

 N° 6. Upon Lilac Hills

 N° 7. Stunning

 N° 8. One Note at a Time

 N° 9. Maui Bound [Instrumental]

 N° 10. Fantastic Vista

 N° 11. Venus Sunset [Instrumental]

 N° 12. Take Me to 9 Heaven

 N° 13. Frightened

 N° 14. A Time Not Long Ago

 N° 15. White Sands

 N° 16. The Dream Weaver

 N° 17. Eastern Winds [Instrumental]

 N° 18. 99 Shades Past Brilliant

 N° 19. Metamorphosis 9

 N° 20 Blue Memories [Instrumental]

 N° 21. Sensual

 N° 22. Resonance

 N° 23. Biotronics I [Instrumental]

 N° 24. Journey to Stratta [Instrumental]

 N° 25. A Joyful Return to Form

 N° 26. Boysenberry Fog [Instrumental]

 N° 27. Musical Mosaic

 N° 28. Few Artists, Many Critics

 N° 29. Jazz Hotel [Instrumental]

 N° 30. Beauty is in the Heavens [Improvisational Poetry and Music] (for Robert Johnson)

 N° 31. Good Morning [Instrumental]

 N° 32. She Saw The Rainbow (for Diane Acosta)

 N° 33. Longing for Peace [Instrumental]

 N° 34. Warm Streams

 N° 35. Troubled Mind, Healing Words [Instrumental]

 N° 36. Hopeful Against All Odds

 N° 37. Conduits

 N° 38. Brilliant Adventure

 N° 39. Sailing the South Pacific [Instrumental]

 N° 40. Lavender Nights with Candlelight

 N° 41. The Genius

 N° 42. Eternal Flame [Instrumental]

 N° 43. Mystery Apples [Instrumental]

 N° 44. Will Civilization Survive? [Instrumental]

 N° 45. Can it Be? [Piano Instrumental]

 N° 46. In The End

 N° 47. Intangible Harmony

 N° 48. Space Face [Instrumental]

 N° 49. Moon Dust

 N° 50. Golden Wonders Skating Proudly in the New Age [Instrumental]

 N° 51. My Compositions as Garbage Liners

 N° 52. Shades of Gray [Instrumental]

 N° 53. Our Greatest Desire (for Robert Kehoe)

 N° 54. Millennium Loops

 N° 55. The Japanese Gardens

 N° 56. A Magritte World

 N° 57. Possessed

 N° 58. Lotus Pedals

 N° 59. Tangerine Dreams

 N° 60. Upside Down

 N° 61. Express Your Dream

 N° 62. Retirement Ball [Instrumental] (for William Dresser)

 N° 63. The Day After [Instrumental]

 N° 64. The Day Before [Instrumental]

 N° 65. The Vertical Plane

 N° 66. Today [Instrumental]

 N° 67. Paradise

 N° 68. The 4th Millennium

 N° 69. His Bright Future [Instrumental]

 N° 70. Piano Improv 1 [Piano Instrumental]

 N° 71. Magical Moments [Piano and Voice]

 N° 72. Give Me Life

 N° 73. Piano Improv 2 [Piano Instrumental]

 N° 74. Starlight

 N° 75. The Rise of the Phoenix [Instrumental]

 N° 76. The Day Was Most Complete

 N° 77. The South Pacific Air

 N° 78. Ions

 N° 79. The Zone of a Dream

 N° 80. Morning Illuminations [Instrumental]

 N° 81. Pink Feathers

 N° 82. Piano Improv 3 [Piano Instrumental]

 N° 83. Chasing a Dream

 N° 84. A Complicated Life

 N° 85. On the Way to a Sunset

 N° 86. Images, Or Music as Painting and Writing

 N° 87. Marching Forward

 N° 88. The Return of the Sun [Instrumental]

 N° 89. Island Paradise

 N° 90. The End [Instrumental]

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  Being a diversion from composition lessons, John recorded Crafted Stardust during the summer of         2003.  He read his poetry while  playing these studio improvisations. They contain no overdubs or

  edits.

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Miscellaneous 

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 Invention (Homage to J.S. Bach) for harpsichord - 1998

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 Metamorphosis 

  • N° 1 for Solo Viola - 2001

  • N° 2 for Solo Viola - Return to Tranquility - 2001

  • N° 4 for Solo Cello - 2001

  • N° 5 for Solo English Horn - 2001 (In memory of the tragic events of 9-11-01)

  • Nº 12 for Solo Tuba - 2005

         Part 1 - Dark Deceptions

         Part 2 - Secular Lies

         Part 3 - Torn Between Two Selves

  • No. 13 for Solo Flute  (Let It Not Be in Vain) - 2006 - Premiered by Lisa Cella on 7/18/2006 at the         Monti del Parterre Amphitheater, Cortona, Italy. 

  • No. 14 for Solo Trumpet in C - 2011

  • No. 15 for Harpsichord - 2013

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 Woodwind Quintet Sketch 

  • No. 1 - 2001

  • No. 2 - Back to Simplicity! - 2012

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 String Quartet Sketch

  • No. 1 – 2001

 

 Fanfare for Two Trumpets in C (10th Anniversary Honolulu Triathlon Fanfare) - 2013

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​ Tango Americana - for Violin, Guitar and Piano - 2015

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​ Fanfare for Four Trumpets in C - 2018

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