[NewMusic] Certificate of Honor for the SFCCO

[Michael Cooke]

I wanted to share this little bit of news, my orchestra is recieving a "Certificate of Honor" from the city of San Francisco tonight at our concert, in recognition of five years of performing new music by composer-performers from the San Francisco Bay Area.  http://sfcco.org/images/certificateofhonor.jpg

I also wanted to share a video from our June concert of one of my compositions, Ha-Me'aggel (one who draws circles) for Orchestra. 

http://sfcco.org/video/ha-meaggel-lb.asx

Ha-Me'aggel (one who draws circles) for Orchestra was originally written for my quintet (woodwinds, trombone, cello, koto and percussion), the Cooke Quintet. The group recorded this work on An Indefinite Suspension of The Possible released on my label Black Hat Records. It has four sections, which in the original version could be played in any order, a form known as circle music. I felt that this piece would adapt well as a Concerto for Saxophone or Orchestra, though I had to make the form less flexible for an orchestra. There is some freedom to allow different instruments be featured but in tonight’s concert alto sax (Michael Cooke), clarinet (Jonathan Russell), piano (Alexis Alrich) and timpani (Victor Flaviani) are featured instruments. The melodies in the piece were written using a Klezmer scale, which made me think of the story of Onias (Honi) Ha-Me'aggel, a first century Jewish scholar who drew a circle and placed himself in the center of it, praying for rain and whose prayers were mysteriously and immediately answered. My prayers where also answered, as this piece was made possible by a Creative Connections Award from Meet The Composer.

Michael Cooke
http://www.blackhatrecords.com/

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