About"Gamble everything for love" is a multi-movement work for high school level musicians intended to be performed in collaboration with your school's band (chamber group) and choir. Two of the five movements are also written to specifically include students from special education classes. Whether or not you do this at your school is up to you but I encourage you to try it out! Including students with intellectual disabilities or special needs in the music classroom should be part of the mission of every school music program in the country.
The piece was commissioned by my friend Caroline Hand and Blaine High School in Blaine, Minnesota. It was premiered on a concert that served as an R-Word Campaign event. This grassroots movement aims to end the derogatory use of the word "retard" and to promote more inclusive environments for people with special needs. In honor of the concert event, I selected texts with themes on change, acceptance, and love. The poets featured in the piece are Paul Dunbar, Joy Harjo, and Rumi. As we all know, inclusion is very difficult in the high school music classroom. There is currently very little literature to create truly inclusive environments for all students. I wrote "Gamble," to begin filling this void. With special adaptations for the choral parts and text difficulty, as well as additions of percussive sounds (for students with limited vocal ability) I hope to create music that is accessible to a larger body of performers. |
Purchase the scoreFor full score + parts, as well as the piano edition of this piece please contact me.
Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 B-flat clarinets, 2 bassoons SATB Percussion Also available as a piano only edition with optional percussion.
Mediacoming soon, a video of the premiere performance
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