Annual American Composers Update
Michael Braz
Professor of Music at Georgia Southern University, SAI
Friend of the Arts Michael Braz is a member of the graduate
and honors faculties, teaching theory/aural skills, orchestration
and choral arranging classes, as well as courses on Finale
music software and Wagner's
Ring cycle. Currently,
he is composing six sacred works for a consortium of three
Northern Mississippi churches under a Faith Partners grant
from the American Composers Forum and the Rockefeller
Brothers Foundation. (Formerly known as the Church/Synagogue
Residency Program, this grant funds residencies enabling
composers to collaborate with a consortium of diverse
faith communities in the creation of new sacred music.)
In addition to his teaching, performance and composition,
Dr. Braz is guest-conductor/clinician for several choral
organizations, including the Bibb County Honor Choir Summer
Camp, in Macon, GA; the District 10 Middle School Honor
Choir, in Augusta, GA; and the upcoming Mississippi A11-State
Junior High Choir, in Jackson. His arrangement of the
Christmas song
Follow the Light for SSA choir and
piano or orchestra (
Hinshaw
Music) was reviewed in the Sept. 2000 issue of
Choral
Journal. In 2000, Plymouth Music Co. published his
arrangement of
Bay of Fundy (a Maine sea chantey
by Gordon Bok) for TBB choir and piano, as part of its
Jo-Michael Scheibe Choral Series; and in 2001,
Hinshaw
Music, Inc. is scheduled to publish his arrangement
of
The Hills of Arirang (a Korean folk song, with
Korean/English text) for two-part choir and piano. His
outside interests are comparative religions and trekking
in the Nepal Himalaya. He can be contacted at (912) 681-5397
(school) or at
mbraz@gasou.edu.
Premieres
Tin Pan Alley Overture, for two pianos and orchestra,
had its first performances with Lewis/Perry piano duo
and the Boston Pops Orchestra.
Of Ancient Chants Surrounding
(texts from Whitman's
Old Chants and
That Music
Always Round Me), for SATB choir, written for the
inauguration of Dr. Bruce Grube as University President,
was presented by the Georgia Southern Chorale, Rod Caldwell,
conductor. As part of the American Composers Forum's Faith
Partners program, premieres occurred of
Have Ye Not
Known?, for SATB choir and keyboard, by the choir
of the First United Methodist Church of Tupelo, MS, Beverly
Clement, director of music, with the composer conducting;
Saviour! Visit Thy Plantation (A Prayer for Rain),
for SATB choir, keyboard, flute, by the choir of the First
Presbyterian Church of Greenwood, MS, Karl Zinsmeister,
director of music; and
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,
for SATB choir and keyboard, with optional brass quintet
and handbells, by the choir of the First United Methodist
Church of Columbus, MS, Pat LaBarre, director of music.
Sandra McClain Buller and Jeffrey Buller premiered
A
Suite of Love and Marriage (The "Little Ring" Cycle)
(text based on writings ranging from ancient Greece and
Rome to Shakespeare and Lord Byron), for soprano and piano.
The Georgia Southern University Symphonic Wind Ensemble,
Daniel Pittman, conductor, introduced
Pandean Pilgrimage,
for concert band with optional women's choir, written
as a gift to SAI and including the
Chorale and
To Sigma Alpha Iota. All premieres except the last
were commissioned.
Further Information
