Fantasy Variations

Fantasy Variations represents a culmination of years of musical exploration and personal development.a The primary goal in writing the piece was to create a large-scale orchestra work that made use of the solo piano to generate music of the piece's main material. Other areas of particular interest were to develop the composer's use of form, melody, harmony, rhythm, and orchestration. Inspirations for composing this piece came from a wide range of artists: Gustav Mahler's style of developing variations, Camille Saint-Seans' use of piano with orchestra in African Fantasy, and Keith Emerson's elaborately orchestrated Piano Concerto.a Fantasy Variations is a ten minute work for solo piano and orchestra that is based solely on the opening idea stated in the piano. The piece begins in F-sharp minor with hints of F-sharp major and ends firmly in F-sharp major.