Charles Griffin

The Long Island Composers Alliance hosts a performance by the Italian flutist Andrea Ceccomori and Bulgarian pianist Elitza Harbova on Tuesday, September 25 at 7:00 PM at the Hewlett-Woodmere Library (1125 Broadway in Hewlett – Tel: 516-374-1667).

After Andrea gave the Italian premiere of my Fragmentary Rondo at the Goethe Institute in Rome, I connected him to the Long Island Composers Alliance, and this concert is the result of that collaboration. In addition to performing my solo work on this concert, other works for solo flute or flute with piano accompaniment will be included by LICA composers Jay Anthony Gach, Julie Mandel, Dana Richardson, Herbert Rothgarber and Margaret Collins Stoop.

The Long Island Composers Alliance hosts a performance by the Italian flutist Andrea Ceccomori and Bulgarian pianist Elitza Harbova on Tuesday, September 25 at 7:00 PM at the Hewlett-Woodmere Library (1125 Broadway in Hewlett – Tel: 516-374-1667).

After Andrea gave the Italian premiere of my Fragmentary Rondo at the Goethe Institute in Rome, I connected him to the Long Island Composers Alliance, and this concert is the result of that collaboration. In addition to performing my solo work on this concert, other works for solo flute or flute with piano accompaniment will be included by LICA composers Jay Anthony Gach, Julie Mandel, Dana Richardson, Herbert Rothgarber and Margaret Collins Stoop.

The Piano Duo Gastesi-Bezerra will be performing four of the six movements of my From the Faraway Nearby for piano four-hands at the College of Southern Nevada’s 6th International New Music Festival in Las Vegas. Their recital will take place at the Cheyenne Campus on Saturday, Sep. 29 at 4:00 p.m. The rest of the program will be include The Holy Fool by Symeon Waseen, Amalo Mio by Piotr Lachert, À Rebours by Justin Rubin, Tacomarraco by Carme Fernández-Vidal, and Deceptions by Marlene Woodward-Cooper.

In Q, the new music trio (Nicole Camacho (flute), with Chris Bonacorsa and Cesare Papetti (percussion) will perform my Kusanganisa at Hofstra University on September 16 at 4 PM.

Other works on the program are Idyll for the Misbegotten by George Crumb, Vai by Chris Bonacorsa, Velocities by Joseph Schwantner, Density 21.5 by Edgard Varese, and Composed Improvisation for Snare Drum by John Cage.

Room 010 in the New Academic Building. Admission is free.

The piano duo Stephanie Ho and Saar Ahuvia are kicking off the season with a guest performance at Cornelia Street Cafe in New York’s Greenwich Village as part of the Composer’s Collaborative Serial Underground Music Festival. They will perform selected movements from my From the Faraway Nearby for piano four-hands, as well as Conlon Nancarrow’s Sonatina.

Monday, September 10, 8:30 PM

Cornelia Street Cafe
29 Cornelia Street
(bet. 6th and 7th Ave)
New York, New York
Tel: (212) 663 1967

The Rīga-based clarinet quartet Quattro Differente (Guntars Gedroics, Kristaps Kitners, Marina Vidmonte & Ceslavs Grods) will include my Panta Rei on their concert at the Jaunais Rīgas Teātris in Rīga, Latvia, on Monday, September 10th at 7PM.

Panta Rei, originally an 8-minute work for saxophone quartet, was premiered by the Amherst Saxophone Quartet in Buffalo, New York. Quattro Differente premiered an earlier version of the piece in Ogre, Latvia, last year.

Also on the program will be works by Nick Gotham (Up From Under/Uzniršana), Jēkabs Nīmanis (Episodes), Santa Ratniece (Septiņi Pakāpieni), Jānis Dūda (Intermezzo), Edgars Raginskis (Asteriona nams), Austra Savicka (About Time), and Imants Mežaraups (Sfinksa).

The City of Liepāja, Latvia, commissioned a new work from me for the organist Lotars Džeriņš to premiere on the 4-manual, 7000-pipe organ of St. Trinity Church during the VI International Organ Music Festival in Liepāja, Latvia on Saturday, September 8, 2007 at 8PM.

Scored for organ, timpani and SATB Choir, Die Freudenkrone: Ehrerbietung zu J.S. Bach (The Crowning Joy: Homage to J.S. Bach), the premiere will feature Lotars Džeriņš (organ), Normunds Everts (timpani), Intis (a local chamber choir, directed by Ilze Valce), and special lighting by Mārtiņa Feldmaņa. The title is taken from part of the text from the chorale movement (verse six) of Bach’s Cantata BMV 103. For this piece, I used that chorale melody (with my own harmonization), along with fragments taken from Bach’s toccata and fugue in D dorian (BMV 538).

Built by Heinrich Andreas Contius (J. S. Bach’s favorite organ builder) the organ of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church was the biggest organ in the World until 1912. It remains the biggest in Latvia and still one of the most impressive in Europe, filled with rococo ornament and detial. It is the the only organ in the world still extant which was voiced by H.A. Contius.

Here’s a detail above the pipes:

Here’s the four manuals:

I was interviewed for two Latvian newspapers: Kultūras Forums and Kurzemes Vārds. If you can read Latvian and want to read one of the interviews, you can read it here.

Chorale text:

Ich habe dich einen Augenblick,
O liebes Kind, verlassen;
Sieh’ aber, sieh’, mit großem Glück
Und Trost ohn’ alle Maßen
Will ich dir schon die Freudenkrone
Aufsetzen und verehren;
Dein kurzes Leid soll sich in Freude
Und ewig Wohl verkehren.
I have for a moment,
my dear child, left you;
but see, see, with great good fortune
and comfort beyond all measure
I shall on you the crown of joy
place and honour;
Your brief suffering will into joy
and everlasting good be changed.

–English Translation by Francis Browne (February 2002)