by Kile Smith | May 3, 2022 | Classical music, Podcast
With $500 from his father for school, the 18-year-old ran away from home, leaving Europe on a ship to the US, and ending up in Galveston, Texas. He knew six languages, but not one of them was English. Gene Gutchë (1907–2000). Symphony VI (1970) Listen on SoundCloud...
by Kile Smith | Apr 3, 2022 | Choral music
Where the Mind Is Without Fear. SATB, 4’30”. Text by Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941), from Gitanjali (Song Offerings), No. 35 (1912). Commissioned by the University of New Mexico Concert Choir, Dr. David Edmonds, Conductor. Premiered by them 22 Apr 2022. Ever since...
by Kile Smith | Apr 1, 2022 | Classical music, Fleisher Collection, Fleisher Discoveries, Orchestral Music
This was the last completely original piece of music he would ever write. He was 31 years old and he told people that he was Icarus. Igor Markevitch (1912–1983). Icare (1932–43) Listen on SoundCloud Listen on Spotify Hi everyone, I’m Kile Smith, and welcome to...
by Kile Smith | Mar 11, 2022 | Art songs, new music, Vocal music
Sometimes It Happens So. 2022. Five-song cycle for baritone, piano, 18′. Poems by Jane Flanders. Commissioned by the Estate of Jane Flanders for Benjamin Flanders, baritone and Nell Flanders, piano. “Blue Lobster” premiered 9 January 2021 at Cincinnati SongSlam....
by Kile Smith | Mar 1, 2022 | Fleisher Collection, Fleisher Discoveries, Podcast
Blackwood thought to himself, “‘Uh-oh… he’s right! That is exactly the process I use.’ I never wrote another piece like that again. If someone can spot that just listening to it, then it’s too obvious.” Easley Blackwood (b.1933). Symphony No. 1 (1955) Listen on...
by Kile Smith | Feb 1, 2022 | American music, Classical music, Fleisher Collection, Fleisher Discoveries, Podcast
A passacaglia is an ever-unfolding imagining of a single theme, over and over, like the living of a life. Richard Yardumian (1917–1985). Passacaglia, Recitatives and Fugue for Piano and Orchestra (1957) Listen on SoundCloud Listen on Spotify Hi everybody, I’m Kile...
by Kile Smith | Jan 14, 2022 | New Compositions, new music, Piano music, Solo
35′. Commissioned by the Community Music School of Collegeville, in honor of its Thirtieth Anniversary. Premiered there by Milena Urban, 23 April 2022. The theme is “Children at Play,” No. 1 from Vol. 1 of For Children (1908-09) by Béla Bartók. In our...
