Variation V - for wind ensemble

Year: 2022

Grade: 5

Duration: ca. 2:15

Purchase: Murphy Music Press

I have had the privilege of working with my friend and colleague Kevin Day in various scenarios for many years. We have worked together as board members for the Millennium Composers Initiative, and we are founding members of the Aurora Tapestry Collective. Although he graduated long before my appearance there, we have even studied at the same school for our undergrad, Texas Christian University, with the same teacher, Dr. Neil Anderson-Himmelspach. I have loved Kevin's music dearly ever since I first heard it, and I admire Kevin himself to no end for his wisdom, compassion, brilliance, humor, and ambition. So, I'm always glad for new opportunities to work with him!

In 2020, Kevin was commissioned by the Tesla Quartet to compose Variation V for string quartet. It was commissioned as a part of the "Alternating Currents" Quarantunes Project, and is based on the fifth variation of the Andante Cantabile from Beethoven's String Quartet in A Major, Op. 18, No. 5. This work happens to be one of my favorites of Kevin's, and it occurred to me that it could work as an excellent concert opener or encore. I called Kevin and proposed the idea, and he enthusiastically allowed me to create this arrangement. I worked quickly and with determination; the result is a colorful arrangement that I consciously attempted to imbue with Kevin's musical voice and that, inevitably, is also imbued with my own voice.