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Guiding Light – A Concertino for Trombone and Concert Band (gr. 4)

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I’m writing a trombone concertino!

I’m beyond excited to be collaborating with Dr. Cole Bartels, Professor of Trombone at Central Michigan University, on a new work for solo trombone and wind ensemble. With the working title ‘Guiding Light’, this 10 minute work will portray the majesty of lighthouses as enduring beacons of home. I’ve already started writing some sea shanties to depict being lost at sea!

Band directors – if you want to get in on this, we have quite the deal for you! Thanks to a generous Creative Endeavors Grant from CMU, we’re offering a consortium option to have Dr. Bartels perform the piece with your ensemble. For just $150, you’ll help support the creation of this composition AND can book Dr. Bartels for two rehearsals and a concert during the ‘26-27 school year (probably like a $1000+ value!). The concert band parts will be a grade 4 and ensured to provide engaging and interesting material throughout.

I personally think this is an absolute steal – The chance to work with a world class trombonist and expose your students to this collaboration process for a fraction of the cost thanks to CMU’s generous grant. Dr. Bartels has been doing great work at CMU and has become a leader in commissioning and championing new repertoire in the trombone world at large, I’m very honored he asked me to write this piece for him. This is going to be a fun project!

Consortium Entry Form

Total Cost: $150
Deadline to Join: April 31, 2026
(Only 10 spots open, so be sure to sign up sooner than later!)
Anticipated Completion: August 15, 2026
Duration: 10 minutes
Difficulty: Advanced/professional trombone solo, and grade 4 band parts
Benefits to Consortium Members:

  • Names of consortium members and ensembles included on the title page of the score
  • Exclusive performance and recording rights for the 2026-27 school year
    • Dr. Chris Chapman and the Central Michigan University Symphonic Wind Ensemble will be the Consortium Director and premiere the piece at their first concert in Fall 2026
  • Input on musical material and title
  • Opportunity to perform the piece with Dr. Cole Bartels
    • Dr. Bartels is able to attend two rehearsals and perform at one of your concerts
      • All travel and clinician expenses are covered for schools up to 90 miles from Mt. Pleasant. For schools a greater distance away, additional travel and lodging expenses may apply

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

Some Cool Competition News!

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So sorry, I always forget that I try to make the homepage of this site a blog with some updates about what I’m doing compositionally. I’ll try to make this blog page a little more active, but if you are wanting more immediate updates, I share news and recordings pretty often on my Instagram page.

Anyway, I’ve been unbelievably honored and grateful to have received some great news regarding a few competitions from this last year!

  1. Julie Giroux selected my grade 4 band composition Teal Fusion as the winner of her Call for Closers, where she’ll be conducting this at the American Bandmaster’s College and several All-State Honors Bands across the country.
  2. The US Naval Academy Band recognized my brass trio Black Diamond as the winner of their Call for Scores. The piece will be performed by a trio of members from the Naval Academy Band.
  3. I was fortunate to have compositions selected for both the International Trumpet Guild Conference’s New Works Recital and the International Trombone Festival’s Composer’s Workshop. I unfortunately wasn’t able to travel to ITG to hear Colorado State University’s performance of Thermal Whiplash, but I’m travelling to ITF to hear UT-RGV’s rendition of Through the Vaulting Skies.

To say I’m excited is an understatement! I’m honestly incredibly surprised and humbled to see these various compositions recognized in such amazing ways, and continue to feel overly lucky to get to write music that speaks to me!

Level Up! – Grade 4 Concert Band Commission Consortium

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I’m super excited to be writing a grade 4 concert band version of my newest saxophone quartet piece, ‘Level Up!’!

I originally wrote this three movement suite for saxophone quartet a movement at a time from Fall 2022-Spring 2024 starting with the closer, ‘Final Boss’. If it’s not immediately apparent, this whole suite is inspired by my love of video games and their iconic soundtracks, ranging from The Legend of Zelda to Final Fantasy to Ori and the Blind Forest to Stardew Valley and so many more!!

This was just a blast of a project to work on. I mean, I originally intended on Final Boss being a standalone piece, but kept feeling inspiration to write more in this style. I later added a companion movement entitled ‘Moonlit Village’, acting as a peaceful haven before that vigorous boss fight . But then after some further reflection, it felt silly to essentially have a middle and end to this gaming narrative with no clear beginning, so I wrote the intro movement ‘Adventure Awaits’ to kick off the saga through an energetic and inspiring tribute to game’s main title themes.

Well now I think it’s time to orchestrate the full suite for concert band! There are so many little brass fanfares, woodwind flourishes, or percussion textures that I hear in the music and would love to express with a few more colors (no offense, sax quartets! I definitely think the original version still holds up just great). This grade 4 band piece will be in its original three movement structure and should be around 11’00” total with each movement around 3’30”. 

Entry Form

Cost: $250
(Save $50 if you join by January 31 or were a part of the original sax quartet consortia!)
Deadline to Join: April 31, 2025
Anticipated Completion: September 15, 2025
Duration: 11 minutes
Difficulty: Grade 4
Benefits to Consortium Members:

  • Names of consortium members included on the title page of the score
  • Exclusive performance and recording rights for all of 2026
    • Jason Boyden and the Mona Shores HS Wind Ensemble will be the Consortium Director and premiere the piece in Fall 2025
  • Input on musical material
  • Opportunity to work with composer in person or via Zoom/Google Meet

Feel free to email me at cehass11@gmail.com if you have any questions about the project! Here are recordings of the original sax quartet version of the piece:

2024-25 New Releases

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This is comically late, but here is an official list of all my new releases for this school year!

And hey, I even got out of the habit of making all my cover pages different variations of sunsets  😂Definitely helps to have Anna Marshall creating many of these (any of the cool looking ones you can assume Anna designed).

New Releases:

Teal Fusion – Grade 3.5 concert band
Through the Vaulting Skies – 12-part trombone choir
Iridescence – Grade 2.5 string orchestra (published through Randall Standridge Music!)
Phantom Voltage – Bari sax duo
Moonlit Village – Saxophone quartet (SATB or AATB)
Dancing Light – Trombone quartet

Re-Releases (New editions of older pieces):

Thermal Whiplash – Trumpet ensemble (6 or 7 parts)
Volcanic Ash – Saxophone quartet, or sextet
Sacred Embers – Saxophone ensemble (8 or 9 parts)
Concerto – Bari sax and string orchestra (or piano)

And yes, this means I’ve revised my Bari Sax Concerto! I’ve been wanting to revise this piece for years and finally had the motivation to rework, condense, and polish what I had originally written in 2018. No recording yet, but I know the piece is already in good hands so hopefully I’ll be sharing one soon!

First Published Piece!

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Baby’s first published piece 😭

I can’t express how excited I am to share that my string orchestra piece ‘Iridescence’ has joined the esteemed Randall Standridge Music catalog for this upcoming school year! To non-musicians not in the know, Randall Standridge has become one of the premiere names in composition – it seems like every ensemble I work with is playing at least one of his unique and engaging pieces and they’re always a delight to rehearse with students. It’s truly an honor to work with one of my composition idols!

Katie LaBrie (the catalog’s editor and another extraordinary composer) has been a beacon of light in this transition, providing so much valuable insight into how to best write for strings. Some of the tweaks that Katie suggested really helped make this piece soar, and it was great to know that most of my bowings already made sense!

And I’d be remised if I didn’t mention how appreciative I am of Kyrstin Jensen, Albin Rose, and the Royal Oak Middle School orchestras for asking me to write this piece in the first place. ‘Iridescence’ was written in memory of a 7th grade viola player at Royal Oak who unexpectedly passed away a few years ago. I truly hope this music will help Sarah Klaus’ memory live on.