Spring Tempest

** This consortium is now open! Enrollment ends September 2025. **

A post-romantic tone poem for string orchestra (grade 5), timpani and piano.

Lead Commissioner: Allison King

Program Concept

A tone poem set in backroads and wilderness. Routines of wildlife are interrupted by a swift and powerful thunderstorm. The skies transform into a torrent of rain, wind and thunder. Then, as quickly as it came, the tempest rolls out and the skies soften into evening.

Inspiration

Our blue sierras shone serene, sublime,
When ghostly shapes came crowding up the air,
Shadowing the landscape with some vast despair;

And all was changed as in weird pantomime,
Transfigured into vague, fantastic form
By that tremendous carnival of storm…

All nature seemed convulsed in some fierce crime,
And then a rainbow, and behold! the sun
Went comforting the harebells one by one;

And all was still save for the vesper chime
From far, faint belfry bathed in creamy light,
And the soft footfalls of the coming night

— A Mountain Storm by Katharine Lee Bates

Package Details

• • ~8 minute duration
  • Grade 5 difficulty
  • Virtuosic solos by violin, viola and cello
  • Extended techniques (e.g., irregular jeté, tapping c-bouts) in storm sequence
  • Piano and Timpani contributing parts (not optional)
  • PDF Score and parts with perpetual license
  • 45-minute Zoom session meet-n-greet/run-through with composer
  • Co-premiere performance promoted on composer’s website and social media
  • Credit on score to all co-premiere performing groups for all perpetuity
  • ⭐Optional 4K custom film to enhance performance experience

About the Optional Film

• • Custom 4K film and sound effects to enhance your performance experience!
  • Film and sound effects edited and programmed to match expression of the music. 

• • Cues are triggered (performed) in-sync with the music using QLab 5 software (with free feature-set license)
  • No click track required!

• • Other Requirements (not included):
    • Mac laptop or equivalent operating on up-to-date MacOS
      
    • Projector and sound system equipment
    • QLab technician (e.g., student) to “perform” the cues along with the music performance

Package Options

• • Co-premiere music performance (April-May 2026)………………………….   $350
    • PDF Score and parts with perpetual license
    • 45-minute Zoom session meet-n-greet/run-through with composer
    • Concert performance promotion on composer’s website and social media
    • Co-premiere credit on score for all perpetuity
  • Co-premiere (above) with 4K Film and sound effects package………….   $600

Consortium is conditional on the participation 20+ performing groups; film option is conditional on the participation of 10+ performing groups.

Milestones

Consortium enrollment period*………………………….   March-September 2025
Director progress review……………………………………   January 2026
Composition complete…………….. ………………………   March 2026
First reading release……………….. ………………………   April 1st, 2026
Film release……………………………………………………   April 1st, 2026
QLab training and setup……………………………………   April 2026
World Premiere performance……………………………..   May 2026
Co-premiere performances……….. ………………………   September 2026 – May 2027
Distribution of final score and parts for libraries……   June 2027

*Package fee to be invoiced and paid by the end of the enrollment period.