Concerto for Violin and Strings

Commissioned by the Boulder Symphony

Instrumentation: violin, strings

Year composed: 2018-19

Duration: 10'

After my first collaboration with the Boulder Symphony, conductor Devin Patrick Hughes had proposed commissioning me to write a trumpet concerto. Although nothing was set in stone, I began conceptualizing my thoughts and looked forward to taking on the project. A year or so went by. Devin returned to officially commission me to compose, not a trumpet, but a violin concerto, to which I accepted with much excitement.

When a mentor of mine received word I’d be contributing to the violin concerto repertoire, he invited me for a weekend stay in his home in Maryland. The purpose would be to study the violin concertos written between the 18th and 20th centuries. I was instructed to bring a notebook and the printed scores of the concertos by selected composers. I arrived on a Friday afternoon and before long we were seated in front of a sound system with our opened scores listening to one of the concertos of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. After listening to each movement, we'd converse, continue listening, break for a meal, listen again, converse, and so on. By the end of the weekend, we had listened to and discussed the concertos of Bologne, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bruch, Barber, Tchaikovsky, and Bartók. 

When I returned to home, I began writing what would become my first concerto for violinist Charles Wetherbee. I can only hope the work pays the proper amount of respect due to the repertoire.