But first, a little backstory:
So, as you know, when I was at CWU I played in the Horn Ensemble the entire time I was there. During my second year, we recorded a piece by Eric Ewazen (www.ericewazen.com) called Legend of the Sleeping Bear. I think we were recording it for our eligibility for participation at an event or something (probably IHS Denver in 2008, at which we did perform on top of the Lamont School of Music). Anyways, it was one of the most memorable pieces of my time there at CWU. The piece was just so fun to play, and it sounded great, and it had a really cool story to it. You can simply Google "Legend of the Sleeping Bear" to get the complete story. You folks from Michigan will definitely know what I'm talking about right away.
So anyways, when I formed the Whidbey Island Horn Club last summer, and I was thinking about repertoire for this ensemble, the first piece that came to mind was this Ewazen piece. I remember it not being very difficult, and it would be perfect for our group and entertaining for our audience. With the donation money we received over the course of our time, I went ahead and purchased the work for our ensemble, and it arrived on Thursday last week. How exciting! It was so great to see it again. And now that I look closely at the score, I really believe this is a masterpiece.
As you can imagine, I had a strong desire to record this...which I did! You can hear all four movements of it on my "Recordings" page. You should seriously check it out. I'm quite proud of the recording. It's not perfect, but sure sounds good in a lot of places. Most of all, though, it's just really, really good music. So please, have a listen!
And today, I got the other music I ordered: A Hansel & Gretel arrangement, a Water Music Arrangement, a Mahler Arrangement, and an original fanfare...more about those works later!
Take care and value music.