I’m all too excited to share a project that I’ve been thinking about for years now – a consortium for a high school-accessible saxophone quartet piece!!

As you might’ve noticed, I love writing for saxophone, but all of my quartets are challenging and only getting more demanding and obnoxious with each subsequent piece. I’ve been incredibly impressed by all the high school ensembles I’ve heard perform these works over the years, but I think it’s about time I write something a little more approachable. I’m thinking grade 4, high school Solo and Ensemble level – something that doesn’t require months of daily rehearsals to prepare.

Not only that, but this piece will take heavy influence from another one of my loves – video games. Specifically, I’m thinking of making this the most epic and exciting final boss theme I can write. I’ve always taken a lot of inspiration from video game soundtracks, whether it be completely unintentional or using an idea I heard recently in a score in my own piece. But after all these years of gaming (which I can now categorize as research!), I’m all too excited at the prospect of writing something taking specific inspiration from the medium.

Saxophonists and music educators, I’d love to work with you on the creation of this piece! I plan to write versions for both SATB and AATB quartet, actually keep key and range in mind for once, and maybe write fewer 13/16 measures this time. Keep this project in mind as we prepare for the upcoming school year, and don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions!

Entry Form

Consortium Fee: $100 ($50 due up front, $50 due upon completion of the piece)
Deadline to Join: September 9, 2022
Anticipated Completion: November 1, 2022
Duration: 3-5 minutes
Difficulty: High School (Grade 4)
Benefits to Consortium Members:

• Names of consortium members included on the title page of the score
• Exclusive performance and recording rights from 1/22/2023 to the end of 2023
  • The Assembly Quartet will be giving the world premiere at the Michigan Music Conference on 1/21/2023 as part of their Pedagogy Project
• Input on musical material
• Composer will travel to performances, if able

Feel free to email me at cehass11@gmail.com if you have any questions about the project!

It’s hard to believe that this year’s International Trombone Festival is already over!

This has been one of the most inspiring and rewarding weeks, getting to meet so many of my heroes and hearing incredible performance after incredible performance. I’m so glad I got to experience the magic that is ITF for the first time!

A huge thank you to everyone who championed my music this week. It’s honestly been a lifelong goal to have a piece performed at the festival, so I’m overwhelmed and humbled to have had three different artists chose to program my music in the same year. I can’t thank Jeremy Marks and the Carolina Trombone Project, Shelby Kifer, and Evan Conroy enough for the love and care they put into making these performances so special.

I’d also be reminded if I didn’t shoutout Justin Cook, Christopher Sharpe, and the rest of the fantastic hosts and organizers of this festival. We all appreciate the hard work you put into making this festival run so smoothly!

And lastly, thank you to everyone else for being so welcoming and kind to a composer and mediocre trombonist all week.

I suddenly have the urge to write a new piece for trombone choir soon…

I’m beyond excited to share that one of the greatest trombonists, New York Philharmonic’s own George Curran, will be premiering my piece Imposter tonight as part of the Southeast Trombone Symposium faculty recital!!!

Here’s an old picture from when I got to hear George’s incredible performance of David Gillingham’s Vital Signs at Midwest! Can’t wait to stream the recital tonight!

I’m blessed to have three(!!) professional recordings of my music coming out soon – Dueling Realities by Joe Swift and Calvin Hu, my trumpet sonata ‘Sonata for Tomorrow’ by Sam Gustavson and Jake Johnson, and Resurgence by Jeremy Marks and the Carolina Trombone Project!

It’s an absolute honor to have such world class musicians elevate my music by putting so much love and care into making these pieces sound as intricate and compelling as possible. Can’t wait to hear the mastered recordings!

What an incredible journey it’s been following the Incendio Trio through their performances at this year’s Fischoff Competition!

I remember getting a message from Bryan Polacek last year, asking me to rearrange the tenor part of Liquid Metal to alto sax because he had a high school group looking to work on it. I think it took me longer to wish them luck and apologize for the piece’s difficulty than to actually transcribe the part! But in no time, Bryan sent me a video of the trio playing the piece. And playing it WELL.

Since then, it’s been so inspiring following Incendio and hearing several of their performances over the course of the year. I’m continuously impressed seeing what this ensemble can accomplish. It’s exciting to see all of their hard work and dedication pay off by receiving the Silver Medal in this year’s Fischoff Competition!!

(Oh, and if I haven’t mentioned this yet, Incendio will be performing at this year’s Midwest Clinic! You won’t want to miss this!)