Ave Maria for Winds and Chorus

Happy Monday, everyone!

Somewhere in my parents' house in Indiana, there's a video of this performance.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, given that I was in my freshman-50 days), I don't have it to upload here.

But I do have the audio, and so I invite you to use your imagination as you listen to this, my setting of "Ave Maria."  After composing and test-recording the original version (for organ, piano, and chorus) with musicians from Evansville, IN, I offered the piece up at the desk of Sebastian "Seb" Bonaiuto, Director of Bands at Boston College, in January 2002.  Although I'd been a member of the Concert Band - which Seb conducts - for my first two years at BC, I only really knew him at a distance, as a member of the group.

Seb took to the piece, and he encouraged me to expand it to include a full wind ensemble and chorus.  He said that if I did, we could possibly perform it at BC.  Needless to say, I was elated, and over the next few months, I met with various members of the BC music department and with Mike Burgo, my vocal coach and liturgical music mentor, to discuss the piece.  But it turned out that along with Mike, who helped me assemble what came to be known as "Schutz Choir," the best advice I got came from Seb himself (this seemed to be the case with me and the BC music department; we just never could get along!).  So, in the fall of 2002, I asked Seb if he'd work one-on-one with me in theory, composition, and conducting.  He agreed, and one of the most fruitful academic and personal relationships I've ever had began to form.

I clearly remember the night of the first rehearsal of "Ave Maria," when I told the ensemble that we'd "Sightread the piece and see what happens."  After the rehearsal, Seb took me aside and told me, very sternly, to never, never to say something like that again.  "If you're going to put an original work in front of a group," he told me, "the least you can do is be confident in it.  Saying you'll 'see what happens' isn't going to make anybody excited to play your music."

Truer words were never spoken, and it's wisdom like that that has led me through the musical work I've done in the past years and that will guide me in the years to come.

So, thanks Seb, and thanks, Mike.  I couldn't have asked for a better pair of musical mentors.