We are on our final weekend of Spring Break.  During the week we marked the year anniversary of dad’s passing.  I also received a wonderful recording of my piece, “Six Songs of Spring”.  Since it IS Spring, I’m going to make that my “featured” piece on the site – but, I’m also going to have my orchestra piece, “Falling Leaves” as the “next up” piece.  I wrote “Falling Leaves” last autumn – literally while the leaves were falling off the trees in beautiful colors.  It was a definite homage to dad.  So, my page will juxtapose the beauty in the “autumn” phase of our lives versus the beauty in the “spring” phase – the time of rebirth!

I’m so pleased with Dorea Cook’s performance of “Six Songs of Spring”.  March and I went to Valdosta State for the premiere on February 7th.  Dorea and her accompanist, Josh Pifer, performed with such sensitivity to the text and to the musical ideas presented in the cycle.  I’m looking forward to receiving the recording!  On a different note, I recently was accepted to the “Space City New Music Festival” in Houston, Texas this summer.  I will be writing a piece for Flute, Clarinet and Cello to be performed there, and I will be able to visit my friends Sharon and Richard Fink, who I haven’t seen for a while.  I also realized that one of my friends from Boston University will be teaching at the Festival – Shih-Hui Chen.  So, it should be a fun week in Houston this July!

I’m looking forward to attending the Charlotte New Music Festival for the next two weeks! I will be immersed in composition, and actually have a composition teacher (for the first time in twenty-five years). This coming Thursday, June 21st, the “Red Clay Saxophone” quartet will debut my new piece, Bopbe. Once I have a recording I’ll post it!

2018 has arrived, and I’m looking forward to this new year!  2017 saw many performances of “Tutti Frutti”, and a premiere of “Drip” in London!  March and I were able to witness a total eclipse in August that inspired my new orchestra piece, Eclipse.  I also finished several new chamber pieces – a Reed Trio, a new Flute and piano piece, a piano concerto, etc.

I’m pleased that “Six Songs of Spring” was named as one of the “finalists” in the recent NATS Composition Contest!  I finished the piece about a week before the deadline, and twisted Lisa Cunningham’s arm to record the piece.  We recorded it in the Music Tech room at Spartanburg High School after school on the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving beak.  She had a click track playing in her ear (with headphones) along with the Finale rendition of the piano part and a clarinet playing the vocal part!  During Thanksgiving break I played the piano part for the sections that I could technically play, and figured out a reverb that would make the piece sound like it was recorded in a concert hall rather than a small class room.  I’m pleased with the final product!

I am so pleased that members of the “Flute New Music Consortium” are performing “Tutti Frutti” in various flute festivals in the next little bit.  This coming weekend, January 28, Kallie Snyder and Sarah Jane Young will be performing it in Orlando at the Florida Flute Association Convention, then Brittany Trotter and Emily Nazario will perform it during the Mid-Southern Flute Association Convention held in Hattiesburg, Mississippi from March 31 through April 1.  March and I are going to head down to Florida to hear the concert this weekend.  In honor of these upcoming performances I’m going to make “Tutti Frutti” my featured work of the moment!

I’m excited that my new piece “Falling Up” will be premiered on Monday (if the weather permits it) as part of a “treefalls” program being held at the Taphouse in Spartanburg.  The concert will begin at 7:00pm and will last approximately an hour.  “treefalls” is a New Music group formed by my former student Peter Kay.  It has brought all kinds of vitality to Spartanburg in my opinion!!  “Falling Up” is written for Flute, Oboe, Synthesizer and special effects.  I’m running the performance through “Mainstage” and incorporating a Looper and some special microphone effects.  I’m posting a mock-up of “Falling Up” as my “Featured Composition” until after the performance.  I hope people can attend the concert, and enjoy the music.  It is kind of a new style for me, and it is pretty challenging to run all the special effects!

In honor of the Christmas Season I’m making the “featured work” my choral setting of “The Bird of Dawning”.  This was composed back in the early 2000s for a Spartanburg County Christmas festival.  The text is taken from “Hamlet”, and it refers to the “Saviour’s Birth”, which is so inspiring that it causes a “Bird of Dawning” to sing all night long.  In my setting the piano part offers up a melody which could be considered the “Bird of Dawning’s” song.  I’m hoping this is a wonderful, joyous season for all!

I’m pleased that “Tutti Frutti (for Two-ti Virtuosi Flutti)” won an “Honorable Mention” in the “Flute New Music Consortium” composition contest!  “Tutti Frutti” was a piece I had envisioned for years – and I’m glad Turi, my cousin (first removed) had his Senior Recital at Eastman coming up, to propel me to actually write the piece!!!  “Tutti Frutti” is a “Sweet” in “Five Flavors” that represents different “Tutti Frutti” flavors.  I wrote “Lime” first, and the others pretty much flowed out afterwards.  I was hard pressed to come up with the title of a “flavor” for my last movement.  Soon, however, I realized I was writing a “bi-tonal” piece, so, I named it “Strawberry-Kiwi”, which is a mixed drink that combines two flavors.  Problem solved!  The piece sounds like a lot of fun, but I think it’s a lot of work to learn.  Turi and his friend, Ryan Norville, spent much time working on the piece, but the performance was wonderful!  I am posting the audio from Turi’s recital as my “featured piece” for now!  I’m hoping other flute players will perform the entire “Sweet”, or maybe one of the movements as an encore!!!

Welcome to my new web site!  I’ve been working on this site for several months with the help of my talented cousin Turi Scilipoti.  I will try to keep people up to date with my musical activities at this new site.  Currently I am busy as the “house” pianist for jazz jam sessions on Wednesday nights at Blues Blvd., in Spartanburg.  As far as compositions are concerned, I am finishing up a piece for mixed media, flute and oboe that will be premiered at the next treefalls concert on Nov. 14th!  This is my first classical piece that uses synthesizers and live “loops”, and I’m looking forward to hearing the performance!