SAKURA Premiere at Disney Hall

Donald Crockett has received a commission from New Music USA to compose a major work for the outstanding young cello quintet, SAKURA, for the 2019/20 season. The premiere of Carving an Alphabet will be on the closing concert of the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival, which is part of the Colburn Celebrity Series, in Disney Hall, Los Angeles on March 22, 2020. Stay tuned for additional details! Updates on the project are also available at the New Music USA website.


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"And The River" Consortium Commission & Premiere

"And the River", Donald Crockett's new concerto for duo pianists and chamber orchestra featuring HOCKET, premiered in May 2018 with Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra.

Co-commissioned by Kaleidoscope, Oberlin Conservatory, and the Aspen Music Festival, "And the River" with HOCKET travels to Oberlin in November 2018 and to the Aspen Music Festival in July 2019.



"And the River" - Excerpt 1
"And the River" - Excerpt 2

"And the River" - Excerpt 3
"And the River" - Excerpt 4

"And the River" - Excerpt 5
"And the River" - Excerpt 6

"And the River" - Excerpt 7
HIGHLIGHTS FOR SPRING/SUMMER 2018

Two commissioned premieres are on the way, with Donald Crockett hard at work on a new concerto for HOCKET piano duo in a co-commission with Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, and the Oberlin Sinfonietta.
Here is a workshop session on the piece with Sarah Gibson and Thomas Kotcheff, aka HOCKET, as they navigate in and around a Steinway grand:


A featured work early in 2018 is Night Scenes for piano trio, which Chicago's Fifth House Ensemble has been touring in 2016/17 and 17/18, with upcoming performances at Eastman and at the Grand Teton Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Night Scenes will also be featured at the Bennington Chamber Music Conference this summer at Bennington College, Vermont.

Here are sample tracks from the Night Scenes recording by Firebird Ensemble on New World Records:

Audio Excerpts: 
Mvt 1. Scatter the Barbarians - excerpt from Night Scenes
Mvt 2. The Blue Guitar
Mvt 3. Midnight Train
Mvt 4. Night Hawk

In Summer 2018, Donald Crockett returns to the Aspen Music Festival to conduct the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble for three weeks, then on to the Bennington Chamber Music Conference as Senior Composer in Residence, overseeing the composition program, working with the Resident Composers for the summer, and coaching performances of his music, including Night Scenes.

Summer 2017 Highlights

During June-August 2017, Donald Crockett appeared at five music festivals, featuring the Argus Quartet in the world premiere of String Quartet No. 4 "Traveling Symphony" commissioned by the Caramoor Festival in New York. Additional performances included the New York premiere of "Dance Concerto" at the MoMA Summer Garden Series, "Whistling in the Dark" at the Aspen Music Festival, and "Pilgrimage" for piano solo at the Atlantic Music Festival. He also presented a seminar, "Composing String Quartets", at the Bennington Chamber Music Conference in Vermont.

"Whistling in the Dark" rehearsal, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble in July 2017.

Premiere of String Quartet No. 4 "Traveling Symphony", Argus Quartet, Caramoor Music Festival, New York, July 2017


Audio Excerpts: 
String Quartet No. 4 "Traveling Symphony", excerpt 1: beginning
String Quartet No. 4 "Traveling Symphony", excerpt 2: Telling the news
String Quartet No. 4 "Traveling Symphony", excerpt 3: Light the grid
  • "Whistling in the Dark", dress rehearsal, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Aspen Music Festival
  • Argus Quartet rehearsal, String Quartet No. 4 "Traveling Symphony", Chicago
  • "Traveling Symphony" tech setup
  • Stage setup, "Dance Concerto", MoMA Summer Garden Series, New York
  • "Dance Concerto", New Juilliard Ensemble, Joel Sachs, conductor
  • "Dance Concerto" audience at MoMA
Click for slideshow
Orchestra

Blue Earth CD released by BMOP/sound

Our latest release brings one of our favorite bi-coastal collaborators to BMOP/sound. Composer Donald Crockett is tuned into the maze of rhythms, cycles, and energy that makes the natural world tick, and has an otherworldly talent at turning those nuances into orchestral music that bursts with vibrancy and motion.

The disc opens with Wedge, inspired by surf off of Newport Beach, California, and full of the beautiful, fluid power of the ocean. Blue Earth frames the intimate eloquence of solo voices with the full-blown grandeur of a symphonic work, its inspiration the quiet intelligence of the interlocking ecosystems of our magnificent planet. Crockett hones in on a single, personal voice in his Viola Concerto, in which violist extraordinaire Kate Vincent swoops, glides, and races through a lively, playful soundscape.

More information and track samples

KUSC interview with audio clips

American Academy of Arts and Letters citation

Donald Crockett’s music dwells in a special realm of energetic grace, subtly nuanced emotional force, and sensuous melody. From the athleticism of Wedge for orchestra, the spirited dance rhythms of the septet Whistling in the Dark, the unabashedly erotic setting of Michael Ondaatje’s The Cinnamon Peeler, the inward musings of The Falcon’s Eye for guitar, to the psychological mysteries of his opera, The Face, Donald Crockett’s work engages both his players and his audiences with its compellingly sustained beauty.

Upcoming events

New Music for Orchestra |
February 24, 2023

Donald Crockett conducts the USC Thornton Symphony in the annual New Music for Orchestra concert, featuring brand new works by outstanding Thornton student composers.

SAKURA premieres 'Carving An Alphabet' |
April 27, 2023

The amazing quintet of cellists, SAKURA, will finally offer the pandemic-delayed premiere of Donald Crockett's Carving an Alphabet - commissioned by New Music USA and originally scheduled for its premiere on the closing concert of the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival in Disney Hall in March 2020 - on April 27, 2023 at Colburn.  (At least it's just across the street from Disney Hall!). A recording session will follow; stay tuned for additional details.

Argus Quartet tours and records 'Array' (Quartet No. 1) and Quartet No. 2 |
Spring 2023

The intrepid Argus Quartet continues its two-season project of touring and recording the four string quartets of Donald Crockett: Quartet No. 1 Array, Quartet No. 2, Quartet No. 3 Cortege and Quartet No. 4 Traveling Symphony (commissioned for Argus by the Caramoor Festival). On tour in Southern California, the Argus Quartet will perform Quartet No. 1 Array and Quartet No. 2 in Los Angeles in March 2023, location TBA. Recording sessions in New York will take place in June.  Stay tuned as this project unfolds!

Commission and recording for Piano Sonata 'Red Leaves of Night' |
2022/23 season

American pianist Phillip Bush has commissioned Donald Crockett for his new Piano Sonata Red Leaves of Night for recording in 2022 and performances on tour in 22/23 and beyond. Phillip will pair this with Pilgrimage, an earlier Crockett piano work, and 20th/21st century rep for which Phillip is justly famous (!).  The world premiere took place on September 2, 2022 at Bargemusic in Brooklyn.

LA Philharmonic Composer Fellowship Program |
June 3, 2023

Donald Crockett workshops and conducts pieces by the talented young students in the esteemed Composer Fellowship Program of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, directed by Andrew Norman and associate Sarah Gibson.  May 20: initial day-long workshop at Disney Hall.  June 2: rehearsals.  June 3: final concert at the YOLA Center.

Commission and recording for flautist Conor Nelson |
2023/24 season

Donald Crockett has been commissioned for a substantial new work for flute and piano by the formidable flute virtuoso Conor Nelson, for premiere at the Kennedy Center in May 2024.  Stay tuned for further details.

More information about events