The Middle of Nowhere: Sketches After Grady, Alabama (2023) (10 min.)

Instrumentation: 2 flutes, oboe, clarinet in B♭, bassoon, 2 trumpets in B♭, 2 trombones, bass trombone, timpani, percussion (bass drum, tam-tam), strings

Premiered November 19, 2023 with the Santa Cruz County Youth Symphony
John Thomas, conductor

Program Note

Growing up, every summer my mom and I visited my great-grandmother in Grady, Alabama, which is a small town about thirty miles south of Montgomery. Inspired by my grandfather’s thousand-page long book on our family history, the piece musically explores the scenery, family stories, and my memories of the town that meant so much to my family for four generations. After the death of my great-grandmother who lived to 102, we sold her property and the remainder of my relatives moved out of Grady.

  1. Prelude

  2. The Stories

  3. The Memories

  4. Postlude

World premiere recording