Composed last year, for Dr. Greg Zielke and the Tabor College Concert Choir. "13" is a musical setting/meditation on the text of Psalm 13.
The choir produced this video, written and directed by Tabor alum Austin Calam. The video also features pianist Jennifer Epp and flutist Sarah Teichler.
I recently learned that my concert band piece Gateway Overture was name an Editor's Choice selection by J.W. Pepper, one of the largest sheet music distributors in the world. This is my sixth Pepper Editor's Choice selection, and second for band. While it is an honor under any circumstance, I am especially proud of this, because I composed Gateway Overture for my junior high alma mater, Blackhawk Middle School (Bensenville, IL), and premiered it (amazingly) 30 years to the day that I started attending the…
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This past October, I had the privilege of conducting my new band piece Hope and a New Dawn with the Arlington Heights Community Concert Band (Arlington Heights, IL). They recently sent me a recording of the performance, which you can find here!
Hope and a New Dawn was the product of a consortium with five high school and community bands. If you or a director you know would be interested in co-commissioning a work or heading up a consortium for a new work, please let me know!
For a limited time, I'm making my settings of Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence and Angels We Have Heard on High available in one collection (click on the above titles for more info on each piece, including recordings).
Normally $20 for both, you can now get them for only $10!
Click here to purchase, download and print both for only $10.
If you know any trumpet players that are looking for music to play this holiday season, please feel free to share this with them!
This deal ends soon, so take advantage…
Read moreMy better, smarter and more talented half is giving a flute recital at Tabor College on September 26th at 3PM. Included in her repertoire is two of my newest works, where she will be accompanied on harp by our daughter! (This is peak proud hubby and proud dad stuff right here!)
Be Thou My Vision, for flute and harp, was written as a gift for Sarah, she requested this shortly after our daughter started learning harp, and I finally made good on the promise. :D
Simple Soliloquy, also for flute and harp, is the…
Last week was my wife's birthday, and the gift I presented to her was an arrangement of one of her favorite hymns, arranged for her to play with our daughter (I did ask our daughter if she'd agree to this first!).
After they have a chance to perform it, I will make the sheet music available for purchase. It will be on Sheet Music Plus as well as JW Pepper. Please tell your flute and harp friends/colleagues that a new version of this song will be available for them soon! Thanks!
After a brief covid delay, Chorister's Guild will be releasing my anthem Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven sometime in April 2021!
For SATB and piano, I gave this familiar hymn text a joyous, rhythmic setting in a 10/8 meter. It is very lively, and would work well as a Call to Worship.
I'll be sure to make a more formal announcement once the piece is released, so stay tuned!
Special thanks to Katie Houts at CG, who made this possible and gave me some great edit suggestions, and to Russell Almand who…
Earlier this month I completed and delivered my newest concert band commission to the consortium members that funded it's creation. Hope and a New Dawn is a Grade 3/3+ piece for concert band, the piece was written to communicate a sense of optimism as we head into a post-covid world. No, we're not past it yet, but we will be, and when we get there, it will be an overwhelming time of reunion, joy, hope...but we will also have to remember and mourn what was lost. Through prominent melodies and driving…
Read moreI'm excited to announce this new opportunity for church choirs!
The 2021 Church Choral Club members will receive six (6) new anthems throughout the 2021 calendar year. Each anthem will be voiced for 2-part choir (Men/Women, SA/TB, Treble/Bass, etc.) and feature piano accompaniment.
Each anthem will be a standard 2-3 minute selection that will be centered around a different theme. Members will receive via email a single PDF of each anthem, and granted permission to print as many copies as needed for…
Read moreI recently completed a piano setting of In the Bleak Midwinter, based on the tune CRANHAM by Gustav Holst. While the melody is clearly heard throughout, the surrounding textures create a sense of mystery. The piece was commissioned by a group of seven pianists, and I have included their names in the printed score, for posterity and out of gratitude.
My newest piano hymn arrangement is available! O Great God, written by Bob Kauflin, features a very simple and folk-like melody and a chord progression that is satisfying without being too predictable. In this arrangement, I wanted to start with this harmonic simplicity, while gradually adding more pitches to increase the density of each chord, but still maintaining a diatonic language.
Click here to preview the piece, and here to order it from Sheet Music Plus (exclusive distributor).
Thanks!!!
I'm grateful to the following band directors and schools for joining the consortium:
Mr. Bryan Wright
Paschal High School (Fort Worth, TX)
Mr. Steve Willemssen
Wheaton Academy (West Chicago, IL)
Mr. Chris Dandeles
Waubsonsie Valley High School (Aurora, IL)
Mr. Dan Braker
Thornapple Wind Band (Hastings, MI)
Mr. Victor Anderson
Yorkville High School (Yorkville, IL)
I'm so excited that we have groups from three different states involved!!
I will deliver the piece to them on January 8, 2021. Hopefully…
I'm excited to announce that the Gentle Mary Laid Her Child consortium met the goal of 10 members, so the anthem will happen! Yay!
Many, many thanks to the following commissioners who joined to form the consortium:
Bart Morrison
University Baptist Chruch (Houston, TX)
Brian Stranghoner
Tabor College (Hillsboro, KS)
Chris Winston
Immanuel Lutheran Church (Broken Arrow, OK)
Dennis Emerson
St. Michael Catholic Church (Bedford, TX)
James Cheesman
First Baptist Church of Farmersville (Farmersville, TX)
Laramie…
Read moreI'm excited to announce the release of How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds for SATB and piano, published by Lorenz Music. This is my 3rd published anthem from Lorenz, and I am overwhelmed by their continued support and belief in my work. So, thank you, Lorenz!!!
Here's a lovely demo recording of the anthem.
For more info and to buy the sheet music, visit the Lorenz website here. It's also available from J.W. Pepper.
Please feel free to share! Thanks!
I'm very happy to announce the release of "Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven" from Chorister's Guild! For SATB and piano, I composed this anthem for a consortium of 10 churches a couple years back, and I was quite pleased with how it turned out, and was thrilled when CG accepted it for publication. They give the following description:
This exciting anthem for Christ the King Sunday is a stunner from start to finish! Composer Christopher Teichler sets this familiar hymn text to a lilting new tune, which…
Read moreI'm excited to have two new releases coming soon for church choir! Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven will be published by Chorister's Guild, and How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds from Lorenz Music. Both are for SATB and piano, and doable by average church choirs. Coming in March and/or April of 2020!
I'll announce when one or both are available, but please tell your choir director friends! Thanks!
I've completed a solo piano setting of "How Deep the Father's Love For Us," by Stuart Townend. I wanted to create a stark, contemplative setting of Townend's hymn, appropriate for Lent, Lord's Supper/Communion, prayer and meditation.
Available exclusively from Sheet Music Plus, click here for more info, a demo recording (me on piano!), sample pages and how to order. Feel free to share! Thanks!
I am thrilled to announce the release of two of my works from Lorenz Music.
Take Up Your Cross is a new choral anthem for SATB and piano. This text grabbed me immediately, and musical ideas came to me quickly and easily.
Take this Bread, Take this Cup is a collection of hymn arrangements and two original tunes that were written to fit communion/eucharist portions of a church service. This has been in the works for several years, and I'm very happy that it is finally available!
Many thanks to Lorenz for…
Read moreOn Wednesday, November 6, I went back to my old junior high in the Chicago suburbs for the premier of my newest band piece, Gateway Overture. Blackhawk Middle School (Bensenville, IL) and director Mr. William Winters commissioned the piece, which included some video chats with the students in order to get to know them and the kind of piece that would most interest them. I took suggestions, listened to pieces they previously enjoyed playing, and based most of my musical decisions off of their feedback. It…
Read moreMy newest band piece Gateway Overture will be premiered on November 6th at Blackhawk Middle School in Bensenville, IL. Commissioned by Blackhawk and director of bands Mr. William Winters, this piece is the culmination of several months of planning, discussion, and video chats with students (and a lot of learning on my part on writing for younger band!).
The title of the piece comes from Bensenville's motto, "Gateway to Opportunity." I'm so grateful for this opportunity, not only to write a new piece for…
Read moreAfter months of planning and preparation, I'm please to announce my Eight Christmas Carols for Brass Quintet is hot off the press! The collection features the following holiday tunes:
O Come, All Ye Faithful
Once in Royal David's City
Ding Dong! Merrily on High
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
The Holly and the Ivy
Away in a Manger (Cradle Song)
What Child is This
The collection is available for $50, E-Print only at this time. Click here to order, download and print your copy today!
Click here to download the performance of "Love's Philosophy," performed by the MidCities Chamber Singers. You can own it for only $.99! Get a Grande instead of a Venti for one day, and you've budgeted plenty for it! :-D
For those of you who like the convenience of downloading and printing sheet music, I have several selections from my catalog available on Sheet Music Plus.
What all is available here? I'm glad you asked!
Choral Music
I Lay My Sins on Jesus (SATB and Piano)
If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking (SATB a capella)
Love's Philosophy (SATB and Piano)
Now I Give Myself to Thee (SATB, Flute and Piano)
O, For a Closer Walk with God (SATB a capella)
Prayer of St. Gregory (SAB a capella)
Psalm of Praise (SATB, Trumpet,…
For my band director friends, I'd like to invite you to join my 2020 Band Consortium! I'm organizing this to commission a new work for Grade 3 band that will help kick off the start of a new decade. The piece will be energetic, exciting, and intended to symbolize looking ahead to the future with optimism and hope. In addition to the score and parts to the completed piece, I would be happy to interact with your ensemble via Skype/facetime to talk about the process of composing and why I decided to become a…
Read moreI'm happy to announce that the "Sussex Carol" consortium has been funded! The nine-member consortium is made up of the following directors and organizations: