Composition Notes
Minutes before midnight on New Year’s Eve 1996, I went to my keyboard and looked at the snow-covered houses through my bedroom window. A peaceful silence crept over me and in the back of my mind I heard a violin playing a beautiful melody. This melody became the opening solo in Rhapsody for Violin and Piano. Composed at age 17, this work is one of the longest and most complex pieces I had written so far. The single-movement composition contains elements of a sonata (with 3 contrasting sections). I dedicated this piece to my friend, Chantal Nowak, who played 1st violin for the premiere performance of my first string quartet. This work later won 1st Prize in the 1997 Jean Coulthard Composing Competition. It was first performed on April 17, 1997 by Chantal Nowak (Violin) & Cary Chow (Piano).
Instrumentation
- Violin (Solo)
- Piano
