with Liz Ames, piano

The program will begin with the Pergolesi Sinfonia, familiar to most as material from Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite. Next will be Pete Meechan's "...a night devoid of stars", a piece based on an essay of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King on the futility of violence in society. This piece will be a multimedia presentation in partnership with Professor Audrey Bennett, University of Michigan's Diversity and Social Transformation Professor. The final piece before intermission will be Steven Juliani's "Mariana", a marvelous new work for tuba and piano.
Following intermission will be John Stevens' "Five Muses for Tuba and Piano". John is a sage within our discipline and as a tubist/composer, always writes compelling and effective music for the instrument. Next is a new work, "Nine Miniatures", originally for horn and piano by my friend James Naigus, my former colleague at the University of Georgia. It is a collection of short character pieces that are both evocative and charming. The program will close with the Tom McCaslin arrangement of Mike Garson's Variations on a Theme of Paganini. Yes, it is that theme, which in this work gets a whimsical jazz treatment.