NEWS

Winter-Spring 2024

 

 

 

On February 27, the Thornton Edge at USC conducted by Donald Crockett performed “Hard Cells” which has become something of a staple in their repertory!

On March 25, Bassoon virtuoso Kim Walker and 16 of her “friends” from the DC area played my “Life of the Party — Concerto for Bassoon and 16 Friends” last Tuesday in Alexandria. One of the audience members caught it on a video that’s surprisingly good — and the performance was spirited! The performance was followed by a 2-day recording session — watch for the upcoming CD release.

New Scrolling Score Videos:

Fall 2023

Three YouTube postings highlight Don Freund fall performances!

IUBallet staged a stunning production of choreographer Christian Claessens’ Autumnsongs Ballet to Don Freund’s piano trio (instrumentalists onstage, but off camera — but it’s a glorious video!) 

 

IU NME showcased Freund’s ‘Soul Chaconne, with tsunami‘ during the premiere conducted by Freund himself.

 

Freund spent a weekend in residency at the University of Indianapolis, ending a with a recital of six of his works performed by University of Indianapolis faculty and members of the Indianapolis Symphony.

July 2023

New YouTube videos posted:

Alarm Will Sound celebrates Freund’s 75th birthday with a performance of “Test of Time” at the 2022 Mizzou International Composers Festival.

 

The premiere performance of Freund’s “Kaleidoscope Eyes” by the Canone String Quartet.

January 2023

Don Freund’s faculty recital on January 13th, 2023, is performed in IU’s Auer Hall and live-streamed on IUMusicLive!. The performance includes the first four of his annual piano preludes and the premiere of his 33rd, Piano Prelude 2022 (…raggedy…). Don Freund’s Piano Preludes are an ongoing series of annual short piano pieces begun in 1990.

 

December 2022

If you are in need of some Holiday music, see Don Freund’s Holiday Playlist 2022 to hear 4 of my short, sweet, exuberant Christmas and New Year’s vocal pieces to put you in the mood!

 

Celebrating Don’s 75th birthday (11/15/22) with this playlist of edited videos of all the sensational performances from his October 9, 2022, IU Auer Hall Faculty Composition Recital.

 

October 2022

Don’s Stacked Dectet is premiered by the Jacobs School Faculty All-Stars in IU’s Auer Hall on October 9th, 2022.

 

July 2022

On Wednesday, July 27th Triomusic is performed by the Mizzou Faculty Trio.

 

On Thursday, July 28th Alarm Will Sound performed Test of Time as a part of the Mizzou International Composers Festival.

 

A new recording of Don Freund’s Cascades, Clouds, Crevice featuring Kathleen McLean, Lauren Hallonquist, and Chanelle Junio is available now on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube.

March–April 2022

The music of Don Freund is featured in several concerts:

Cascades, Clouds, Crevice for bassoon trio is premiered in a Bassoon Faculty Recital by Kathleen McLean,Lauren Hallonquist, and Chanelle Junio in Auer Hall.

Exotic Particles and the Confinement of Quarks is performed by the IU Symphonic Band in Auer Hall, conducted by Eric Smedley.

“Holy, Holy, Holy” from the Vonnegut Requiem is performed by NOTUS: the Contemporary Vocal Ensemble in Auer Hall, conducted by Nicholas Sienkiewicz.

Don Freund’s Urban Pastorale is premiered by the IU Symphony Orchestra in the Musical Arts Center, conducted by Thomas Wilkins! From the composer:

Urban Pastorale mixes the bucolic, hearty, open-air warmth of rustic music in the country with the edgy unpredictable energy of the inner city. It borrows its five-movement structure from Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra.

Watch the premiere performance alongside the score:

September–December 2021

Don Freund’s music is featured in a mid-October “Sundays in Auer” concert, including the premiere of his bassoon quartet Tonal Fabrications and performances of three other major chamber works. Just posted on YouTube is Freund’s Saxophone Scrolling Score Playlist, including new videos of his Sunscapes concerto and Louder than Words.

Don Freund presents 4 of his recent Piano Preludes in his September “Music for Heavy Listening” (Bach and Freund) Auer Hall piano recital, including the premiere of his Prelude 2021 constituent contusions (insurrection echoes). Just posted on YouTube is Freund’s Piano Preludes Scrolling Score Playlist.

February 2021

Don Freund releases his new work Sing for Joy! for Unison Chorus and Piano, with Descant and Recorder! A note from the composer:

Sing for Joy was composed as a theme song for Sandra Freund’s “Sing for Joy!” senior community choir. The song, complete with descant and flute obbligato, travelled with us to Kenya, where Sandra conducted the Kabarak University Choir in a chapel service with close to 2,000 in attendance.

Don’s lyrics:

So much love in our hearts, we just have to sing for joy!
When this glorious feeling starts we just have to sing for joy!
When our voices join together it’s a sound that’s sweet and strong —
That’s living, that’s loving, let’s celebrate and sing for joy!

(The concert was March 11, 2020– we hustled back to the US the next day…)

 Check out a video of the Kenyan Premiere:

In addition, in July, Celebrated Australian composer Brenton Broadstock released Don Freund: A Composer’s Life and Thoughts, a
multi-faceted documentary portrait of the life and philosophies of Freund, one his teachers and friends.

January–February 2020

Don Freund is taking advantage of his Spring 2020 sabbatical to bring masterclasses and performances of his music to spots around the world, beginning with a three-weekend intensive composition seminar with graduate composers at the Universidad de Bellas Artes in Guayaquil, Ecuador in January.

At the beginning February, Freund visited Hawaii, meeting up with Jacobs School composition alums Thomas Osborne at the University of Hawaii (where Freund gave a presentation and lecture recital of Bach and Freund and masterclass lessons) and Dan Bradshaw at Brigham Young University Hawaii (including a recital of compositions by Bradshaw and Freund and master class lessons with BYUH student composers).

Later in February, Freund travelled to India where gave a recital of Bach/Freund at the Mehli Mehta Foundation in Mumbai, working with students and faculty of this institution where Jacobs School composition sophomore Kahan Taraporevala developed his musicianship.

The Freunds with graduate student composers at Universidad de Bellas Artes, Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Freund and UHawaii Composition Faculty Don Womack and Jacobs School alum Tom Osborne.

Freund with his BYUHawaii performers: Jennifer Duerden (piano), Daniel Henderson (trumpet): Arioso und Splat
Scottt and Stacy McCarry (piano duo): Prelude, Chorale and a Few Other Things

BYUH Recital Flyer

NEWS

Don Freund Spring 2019 Performances

This spring marks the  premieres of 4 new works by Don Freund. His Piano Prelude 2018 (Romeo’s Love-Death) and Necessary Roughness (JSoM faculty septet, feat. Brenda Brenner) were performed at Freund’s faculty composition recital in Auer Hall in March. Song in the Waves was commissioned by the Korean Harp ensemble “Harpy Day” and premiered by them at Lincoln Center, NYC at the end of April. “Holy, Holy, Holy” — Freund’s contribution to the Vonnegut: Requiem, nine choral settings or Kurt Vonnegut’s requiem text commissioned by Voces Novae was presented in Bloomington on May 11 and 12th. Other JSoM composers among the Vonnegut commissionees are Cary Boyce, Stacy Garrop, Gabriel Lubell and Moira Smiley. Freund’s Seven Violin Duets were performed by JSoMs String Academy Violin Virtuosi in March at the ASTA in Santa Fe, as well as many times during the Virtuosi’s tour of Argentina this summer; the duets were also performed by the Ross/Rotberg duo at Bowling Green State U in April.
Two new scrolling score/performance videos have been posted on YouTube:


06/27/2018

I hope you’ll take a look/listen to a 2-way video (scrolling score and live performance) of my Amen: Quintet Fantasy on the Plagal Cadence, now on YouTube:

I was delighted to collaborate as pianist with all-star Indiana University Jacobs School faculty  — Kathryn Lukas, flute; Howard Klug, clarinet; Simin Ganatra, violin; Brandon Vamos, cello in this performance from a recital in March.
This piece could be described as a twenty minute musical set-up for the last gesture, a simple two-chord “Amen” progression played by piano alone. It might be better first to listen to the concluding lyric section that turns the Amen” plagal cadence into a jazz-styled tune (beginning at 16:52). Everything in the preceding music leads to this!
Enjoy!

06/14/2018

The latest installment of my annual piano preludes, Piano Prelude 2017: “left over” (for cross-handed pianist), is now a scrolling score video on YouTube:

You can see/hear all 28 preludes on this playlist:

Or one big super-video:

Enjoy!
DF