Commissions and New Music:

Forever Home

Oboe, English horn, and Clarinet

composed by Nancy Williams

The Commission

Larkspur Reed Trio formed during a hike in the wildflower fields of Rocky Mountain National Park. The ensemble has bonded over many things including their love for cats. As the group began to expand their mission and consider potential future projects their lovely feline companions were at the center of the conversation. After hearing a performance of Nancy Williams’s Reed Quintet at the Music by Women Festival in Columbus, MS the group brainstormed ideas for commissioning Nancy. They learned of her love for cats and pitched the project to her. Nancy loved the idea and a piece of miniatures representing each ensemble member’s cats was born! The piece will be eleven movements long. It will have one movement for each cat and a final movement for all of our cats who have gone over the rainbow bridge. We will try to stay composed while performing that movement! The trio is looking forward to premiering this work at the International Clarinet Festival in Dublin, Ireland in August. Dr. Williams will also be attending the conference and performing in addition to having this piece premiered.

The Composer

A dynamic and eclectic freelance artist, Dr. Nancy Williams is a musician, educator, composer, and leadership coach based out of Rapid City, SD.  A music educator for over twenty years, Williams has held faculty positions at Northwestern, Dordt, and Chadron State Colleges. Degrees include a Doctor of Arts at the University of Northern Colorado, a Master of Music from the University of Missouri – Columbia, and a Bachelor of Music Education from South Dakota State University as a Briggs Scholar. Williams is currently the SD state chair for the International Clarinet Association.

Williams is an active solo artist and chamber musician, performing most recently as a guest soloist at the International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest, the International Music by Women Festival, Wayne State College, Carpe Clarinet Day, Black Hills State University, the Watertown Municipal Band, and the Rapid City Municipal Band.  She has played with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Ballet, and Powder River Symphony and Black Hills Symphony Orchestra.  Additionally, Williams is a founding member of the West Wind Quintet, Clarinet Madness Clarinet Choir, Clarinet Quartattitude, and Calumet Clarinet Duo.  An advocate of new music, she has a history of commissioning and premiering original works, including William F. Funk’s “Grenadille du Trisque,” Kyle Angley’s “Katabasis,” Kristin Parrish’s “Clarity for Madness,” and Joseph Scardetta’s “Clarinophony.”  Chamber music premieres highlighting Williams’s versatile style include Myles Wright’s “Two Folk Songs” and William F. Funk’s “Triangle,” while she has received commissions for her own compositions from the Larkspur Trio, Sioux Falls Municipal Band, Balinese Gamelan Raga Garnita. Furthermore, her jazz career includes performing with the Temptations and Four Tops as well as regional big bands. 

Chosen to present her research “A Clarinetist’s Guide to Solo Eighteenth-Century Ornamentation” at the International Clarinet Association Conference (2017) and invited to perform her lecture recital “Woodwind Improvisatory Techniques of the Classical Era” at the American Single Reed Summit (2018), she published her pedagogical method book on Classical improvisation, Woodwind Improvisatory Techniques of the Classical Era: A Pedagogy Method, in November of 2021 to rave reviews. "Cadenzas, Eingange, and More: Improvisation in the Classical Era" was presented by Dr. Williams at the 2022 International Clarinetfest in Reno, NV.  She's currently collaborating on music by women composers and British art song with clarinet (the topic of her dissertation History and Development of Secular British Song for Solo Voice and Clarinet) as a SD Artist Fellowship grant recipient.

Across

Music for oboe and harp

composed by Theresa Martin

The commission

Dúo León is furthering our Music by Midwestern Women commissioning initiative with a second Minnesota (and Wisconsin) National Park Site. Theresa Martin wrote Across for oboe and harp, that depicts the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway during the Spring as nature is coming to life. We chose Springtime for the St. Croix because Hannah and her husband Luke were married outdoors next to the St. Croix River shortly after the pandemic began, and Susan and her daughter have taken many “mini trips” to a variety of locations along the river during the Spring. We are excited to include a Wisconsin composer among our Minnesota composers to create music based on this waterway that connects to the Mississippi just south of the Twin Cities in Prescott, WI. We invite you to take an adventure to some of our favorite locations to experience the St. Croix River: Freedom Park Visitor Center and Overlook has a beautiful view of where the river meets, Taylors Falls, St. Croix River Visitor Center, and the Namekagon River Visitor Center. Dr. Martins’s piece will be premiered at the 2022 International Double Reed Society Conference. Sharing the program with this premiere will be Hidden Currents by Katherine Bergman and One Way to Hear the Snow by Libby Larsen. We are looking forward to sharing this program of music by Midwestern Women.

Three Aviaries

oboe, English horn, narrator, and string quartet

composed by Kincaid Rabb

The composer

Kincaid Rabb (b. 1993, they/them pronouns) is an award-winning composer, working at the intersection of storytelling and new music. Kincaid is an artist-scholar whose research includes musical narratology, emotional catharsis, and the phenomenon of the theme park as inspiration. Using narration, world-building, and a strong sense of fun and play, Kincaid creates musical experiences that immerse audiences into intimate spaces and that reward waders, swimmers, and divers alike. Kincaid produces works that trapeze artistic disciplines, curating performances that seamlessly integrate different sensory experiences and create lasting memories through music.

Kincaid’s collaborations have included Paradise Winds, The _____ Experiment, the Driftwood Quintet, Kontra Duo, Keyed Kontraptions, Duo R2, the Brelby Theatre Company, and the faculty and students at the University of Arizona and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Kincaid is a founding member of Basket of Owls, an ensemble of musician-narrators dedicated to curating spaces for unheard stories. Their principal teachers have included Douglas Harbin, Daniel Asia, Pamela Decker, Diego Vega, and Jennifer Bellor.

Currently residing in San Diego, California, Kincaid graduated with a Master of Music in Composition in 2021 from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where they held a graduate assistantships in theory, composition, and musicology. They graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Music in Composition in 2017. Kincaid is affiliated with ASCAP and is a NextGen Member of the Themed Entertainment Association. When not working on making more music about dinosaurs, superheroes, or wizards, Kincaid can be found riding roller coasters at local Southern California theme parks.

Hidden Currents

harp & oboe

solo oboe and wind ensemble

The commission

I had the idea last year to commission a composer to write a piece for harpist Dr. Hannah Palmquist Hite and myself. We had a number of recitals at colleges throughout the Midwest planned and we were looking forward to expanding the repertoire for oboe and harp while having a feature piece for these programs.

I had a concept in my mind of performing a piece that had some connection to a National Park. My daughter and I have a goal of visiting all of the National Park sites (there are over 400) and I wanted to incorporate that into a piece. When I learned that Katherine has a similar love and has written pieces about numerous parks as well as having a residency at Isle Royale (yes I’ve been to that one!), I decided we were a match made in heaven. We had coffee and I shared my vision of a piece about the Mississippi River in the winter which got her mind racing immediately. Since the initial composition is for oboe and harp, we thought there could be some very interesting textural components added by the harp.

the composer

Katherine Bergman (b. 1985) is a Minnesota-based composer who draws on literature, environmentalism, and found materials to create music that has been described as hypnotic and visceral. She has received commissions and performances from leading ensembles throughout the United States, including the U.S. Coast Guard Band, Encore Wind Ensemble, Gustavus Wind Orchestra, Zeitgeist, Seen/Heard Trio, the Minnesota Percussion Trio, The Dream Songs Project, and many others. Her works have been presented at the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference, the College Band Directors National Association Conference, and The Upper Midwest Chamber Winds Symposium, and her compositions have received support from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Jerome Foundation, and the Metro Regional Arts Council.

Katherine holds a master’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa School of Music, where she studied composition with Jonathan Schwabe and Alan Schmitz. She earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota with composition instructors including Michele Gillman and Steve Wright. She has studied extensively with Mary Ellen Childs, and has received individual instruction from Samuel Adler. Recent and upcoming projects include new works for Hub New Music, Nautilus Music-Theater, and a new work for wind ensemble commissioned by a consortium of university and high school bands.

Katherine is Co-Founder and Artistic Co-Director of Spitting Image, a composer collective that brings together composers, listeners, and performers to strengthen the Twin Cities contemporary music community.

the evolution

Hidden Currents for oboe and harp was to be premiered at the 2020 International Double Reed Society Conference and then performed at my solo oboe recital at Dordt University where I am the oboe professor. Unfortunately, Covid made sure that both of those events were cancelled. However, last winter Katherine connected with Dr. Onsby Rose, who is the Wind Symphony conductor at Dordt University. The three of us thought turning the piece into a solo for oboe with wind ensemble accompaniment would be fantastic. Repertoire for oboe with wind ensemble is limited and there are very few pieces written by women composers. This version of Hidden Currents will be premiered in March 2021 and will be recorded for the Dordt Wind Ensemble’s upcoming album “Music with Friends”.

Music for woodwind quintet