Contrails Premiere

I spent the final Saturday of May travelling to Indiana to hear the Eminence Jr./Sr. High School premiere Contrails for band. The work was requested by Patrick Cronin who is a friend of mine from college and the music teacher for the entire school system in the small town of Eminence, just west of Indianapolis. Pat has done terrific work in his job, which includes everything from teaching Orff to the elementary students to taking his combined Jr./Sr. High School Band to state festivals. I was very impressed with what he does and very impressed with the performance by his students.

The title Contrails has several meanings:  When I first began the piece the title was inspired by a poem that I wrote to express my joy when my daughter born. During the writing period I was thinking about the proximity of Eminence to the Indianapolis Airport. Finally, and only because the premiere was at the school’s graduation (with a nice large audience!) did the metaphor for the graduates soaring off into their adult lives become obvious. I like that there could be many interpretations.

Upon my departure, Pat and his band presented me with a signed copy of the original score with the following inscription on the back cover, signed by himself and all of his students:

Thank you for accepting this commission and writing such a fantastic piece for the Eminence Band! Learning this has been a high point of my year and has been a wonderful tool for fostering the love of music as well as accepting and mastering a challenge for our band. The music is so evocative of taking off and soaring! It is particularly appropriate for the 2014 Eminence Graduation ceremony where it is being debuted. I am doubly proud that the piece has been accepted for publication and will ultimately spread the name of Eminence far and wide. I’m sure bands the world over will enjoy the music as much as we have!

Pat's a good guy. This was special.