Clarinet in B b (shown at concert pitch)
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About the Composer:
Duncan Tuomi (b. 1994) is a choral conductor and award-winning composer based in Los Angeles, California. He currently studies choral music in the Doctor of Musical Arts program at the University of Southern California (USC), where he also completed his Master of Music degree. In addition to his choral music degree, he studied composition with Dr. Frank Ticheli and Dr. Chris Rozé. He also holds a Bachelor of Music Degree in Vocal Music Education from St. Olaf College, where he studied under Dr. Anton Armstrong and Dr. Christopher Aspaas, among many others.
As a composer, Tuomi was the winner of the 2023 American Prize in Short Choral Works, College and University Division, as well as the 2021 American Choral Director’s Association’s Raymond W. Brock Memorial Student Composition Competition. He was also a composition fellow in Choral Arts Initiative’s summer 2022 PREMIERE|Project. Tuomi has had works premiered by Choral Arts Initiative under the direction of Brandon Elliott, the USC Thornton Chamber Singers and University Chorus under his own direction and under the direction of Stevie J. Hirner, the Long Beach Youth Chorus under the direction of Stevie J. Hirner, the University of Portland Chamber Singers under the direction of Dr. Michael Connolly, the Pacific University Chamber Singers under the direction of Dr. Scott Tuomi. He has received commissions from the Long Beach Youth Chorus and was commissioned to compose for the 10th annual Brothers, Sing On! Tenor/Bass Choir Festival in 2018.
About the Piece:
“Longfellow’s poem Snow-flakes equates the falling of snow to the revealing of inner grief. By my interpretation, this grief is revealed in artistic expression, turning pain into beauty. This composition serves as both a personal expression of the intense depression I had been experiencing at the time of its composition, and a reflection of how the process of converting pain into art feels.
The first moments of the piece are tentative, as is often the case when one prepares to bare their hurt before the world. Soon, the piece begins to feel more confident, but it is subverted before the first thought can be truly completed by way of its cadence, inspiring a feeling of incompletion. The next section of the piece transitions from telling about one’s emotions to showing them, with the first real tears falling at the word ‘snow’. From there the music begins to weep, and in doing so experiences the catharsis of emotional release around the word ‘confession’. In having wept and experienced emotion in its fullest, only then can the piece return to its original theme and achieve a sense of completion at the cadence. In other words, grief can only be properly expressed and understood by allowing oneself to experience it.”