My new composition 898 Hildegard for chorus and orchestra commissioned by the Genesee Valley Orchestra and Chorus will be premiered first in Rochester, NY, and then will receive its Southwest premiere by the Las Vegas Philharmonic April 2017.
898 Hildegard was commissioned to honor the GVOC’s founder, Sister Virginia Hogan, through the verse and melody of Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179). The title is borrowed from the name of a planetoid in our solar system, 898 Hildegard, thus connecting civilization’s ancient cosmos with the one that it continues to discover. I used excerpts from her chants “O Vis Eternitatis” and “O Gloriosissimi Lux Vivens Angeli,” in which the text is about eternity and angels. Then, I listened to the recordings of these chants on the Hildegard Society website (www.hildegard-society.org), and transcribed the performances in order to learn how these chants are presented rhythmically. After studying the intricate details of both chants, I then intertwined the original chant material with my own variations throughout, melding it together into a through-composed composition that not only displays my compositional style, but also highlights these beautiful chants by Hildegard von Bingen.