I'm happy to share a new consortium opportunity for a grade 3 band piece: Hoopla!
There are two options available for joining the consortium:
Click here to learn more and to register! Please share!! Thanks!!
I'm excited to be putting together a commission consortium for a new SATB and piano anthem for Easter. Day of Wonder, Day of Gladness will be a perfect opener/call to worship/processional for Resurrection Sunday. While 4-part, much of the choral writing will be 2-part and even unison, so it will be easier to learn and put together. Choirs of all sizes will be able to perform this new work successfully!
Only $75 to join. Click here for more info and to join the consortium! Thanks!
It's always a exciting to be at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic; I've been attending most years since 2001, and exhibiting with some colleagues for the past four years (minus 2020 for covid). Arthur Breur, Garrett Hope and myself make up TPC Collective, which is a hub for finding our music for band and orchestra. From there, we have links to our individual websites.
This year was the first time I've had a piece selected for one of the reading sessions: Heroes Return for beginner bands.
Midwest always…
Hot off the press! My newest Christmas carol setting for solo piano, Still, Still, Still, is now available! Suitable for church services or recitals, this is a stark, yet inviting setting of the Austrian carol. Click here to preview and order.
I recently learned that my beginner band piece Heroes Return will be on the Band New Music Reading Session at this year's Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic. This is the first time I've had a piece selected for a Midwest reading session, and I couldn't be happier!
The session will be Monday, December 19 at 10:30 - Noon in W178 (McCormack Place). For a demo/preview of the piece, click here.
If you're at Midwest, I'd love to see you there!
For a limited time, buy the sheet music PDF for only $10, and print however many you need for your ensemble! Click here for more info and to claim this offer! (through my BuyMeACoffee page)
Preview the piece here:
I let it slide for a few years, but now I'm getting back to it!
On my Gumroad page, you can buy many of my compositions as E-Print only (no physical products to ship). Everything is PDF delivery and instant. I'll also run the occasional deal on sheet music, for example: discounting Christmas music in the months leading up to the holidays.
The main hub to order my sheet music is through J.W. Pepper, one of the largest sheet music distributors in the world. You can get to my page by visiting https://www.jwpepper.com/myscore/composerchris, or by clicking here! (<---shorter way :D )
To any fellow composers looking for sheet music distribution for your self-published works, I HIGHLY recommend you check out MyScore!
I'm excited to introduce Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus and Gentle Mary Laid Her Child to you! Both were written with church choirs in mind in regards to technique, but both also allow for a broad range of expression for school and university choirs.
Follow the links to preview both of them, sheet music is available through J.W. Pepper.
Thanks!
I'm pleased to announce a consortium for new music! If you're unfamiliar with a consortium in the context of commissioning new music, it basically is a way of sharing a commission with other ensembles and performers. This benefits the musicians, as they don't have to carry the commission fee alone, and it benefits the composer, because he/she gets more performances! It's really a win-win.
This consortium is for Incarnation, which will be for SATB choir and concert band. It will be a sacred Christmas work…
Read moreHot off the press! My newest piece for string orchestra is now available. Persevering is meant to convey a sense of continuing on through adversity. The COVID-19 Pandemic was the impetus for writing this piece, but the sentiment certainly expands beyond that to different times and types of adversity.
The sheet music is available from J.W. Pepper, and you can preview the score and listen to a demo recording. Please feel free to share with your string educator friends! Thank you!
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!