Storm Warning

torm Warning is a concerto grosso for reed quintet and winds, in three continuous movements. The piece began to take shape in the spring of 2019, when a surprisingly early-season system of severe weather set off the tornado sirens in my neighborhood. After our brief stint sheltering in place in the basement (everything was fine, incidentally). my daughter, then eight, went on high alert for the rest of the season; every time the sky got dark, she'd start to get nervous. It sometimes helped alleviate her anxiety a little to watch television documentaries about weather -- knowledge is power! -- but she'd still be uneasy. My household's subsequent heightened alertness to meteorological phenomena informed the basis for this piece. The first movement, Sirens, evokes the disorientation and alarm experienced during a tornado warning. The second movement, Small Hours, imagines a child falling asleep in her bed on a stormy night, trying to calm herself down in spite of the winds blowing outside her window. Finally, Stormchaser takes its name from the people who deliberately run towards, not away from, severe weather; musical lines and fragments "chase" each other throughout the texture of the soloists and ensemble. Storm Warning is dedicated to the Akropolis Reed Quintet and Professor Michael Haithcock and the University of Michigan Symphony Band, whose individual and collective commitments to new music are inspiring, and very much appreciated."