I have written elsewhere about the problem of the second performance - the difficulty of getting a piece performed more than once. Now there is an article on the Chorus America website about the issue, with a few intriguing observations, most notably Libby Larsen‘s comments about how repeat performances seem to come more easily in the realm of choral music than instrumental. My own experience doesn’t quite bear that out. I have been lucky to get my choral music performed by fine groups, and my Denise Levertov cantata, Fire-Memory/River-Memory, has been done twice by its commissioning organization, Philadelphia’s Mendelssohn Club - in fact, a recording of their second performance of the piece has recently come out. But only one of my half dozen or so motets has been done by a group other than the one it was written for. (All but one were composed for Emmanuel Music, with the exception being performed at St. Jean Baptiste Church in NYC.) Matins, my Cantata Singers commission, awaits a second performance. Yes, I’ve been lucky, but I’d like a little more luck, please. What to do?
Well, for a start, a listing of my choral music, with score samples and audio clips, is here.