Originally commissioned by the Yocum Institute for Arts Education
Chris Heslop – Composer & Musical Director, Vicki Haller Graff – Librettist
Briefly, it’s the story of a poor woodcutter who allows a bear to marry his younger daughter, Nina, in exchange for sparing his life. She discovers that the bear is really an enchanted prince who only appears as a human being at night. When she breaks a promise to him, she must try to find him at the Castle of Faith; on her way she encounters a witch, the sun and moon, wizards and the wind. After many trials, the two are reunited.
Performed by four opera singers, and a three-piece jazz pit (piano – bass – drums)
This year’s big project has been the composition for the D.W. Gregory play “Intimate Exposures,” which has been commissioned by Reading Theater Project, and has its world premiere in the Fall of 2024. Set in the 1880s, the music is somewhat melodramatic, but I am trying to also capture the beautiful folk-ish melodies as they are influenced by European opera of the time. This is more of an arranging project, however I do get to compose a few pieces in the aforementioned styles.
Earlier this year I was able to stretch out artistically with Reading Theater Project’s 5-minute Fringe. I composed a piece using the Fibonacci sequence and created text also Fibonacci-related. I will be adding a recording on my videos page.
More recently, in July of 2024, another experimental piece was performed in the beautiful Reading Public Museum Arboretum by six brass musicians. I simply gave each musician the notes I wanted them to play for each of four movements. They could play any rhythm, dynamic, and order they wanted. I was lucky to have excellent musicians with me who ended up making a very interesting piece. Part of the inspiration was wind chimes. I had found a ten-foot piece of copper tubing in the spring, which inspired me to make some wind chimes. I like hearing the random compositions they make so decided to mimic that with the brass group. The piece can also be heard on my videos page.
