An Evening in Minnesota

On two occasions during my musical career I have journeyed to the snowy hinterlands of Minnesota to give recitals.  My first visit was in 1990, to the University of Minnesota at Crookston in the northwestern corner of the state.  The program opened with my complete set of Nine Preludes, familiar to fans of my music, and closed with two Scriabin etudes.  The centerpiece of the program was my Piano Sonata No. 2.

Of special interest was my Variations for Flute and Piano, where I was assisted by flutist Jean DeSmidt, then residing in Minnesota.  We had arranged this performance by long distance and were not able to rehearse it together until (if I remember correctly) the day before the recital.  But Ms. DeSmidt is a highly skilled professional musician and did a magnificent job with the piece, especially considering its sometimes virtuosic demands.

At one time, I believe I had a videotape of this recital, but I searched diligently for it a few years ago without success.  I would especially have liked to have available Jean DeSmidt’s performance of the Variations for Flute and Piano, which is one of my most lively and dynamic works.

I am happy to tell you that I have reconnected online with Jean in recent years, and we have spoken tentatively about having her come to Phoenix to re-enact her performance of the Variations in a future musical soirée. 🙂

Although I no longer have a recording of that 1990 recital, I do have recordings of all the individual works on the program.  I recorded the Nine Preludes one by one across the years 2013-2016, and those performances are collected together in this video.

I recorded my Variations for Flute and Piano in 2018 with another flutist here in the Phoenix area, Leslie Lewis.

For my Piano Sonata No. 2, I currently have an audio on SoundCloud, based on an analog recording I had made in 1985.  I hope to produce a new digital recording of this exciting and adventurous work, which was an important landmark in my development as a composer, sometime in the next couple of years.

For the two Scriabin etudes with which I closed the recital in Crookston, I have two videos on my YouTube channel that were based on a 1998 concert. Here is the sorrowful Etude in C-sharp Minor (op. 2/1).

Here is the sharply contrasting and highly virtuosic Etude in D-sharp Minor.