Category: Live

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Arrangement Commissions Demos Global Live

HSO MUU: Lo mejor de mí vida

I recently wrote three new arrangements for the Holland Symphony Orchestra’s “Music Unites Us” concert on August 9, 2025. In this outdoor concert, Grupo Super Nova, a Mexican Cumbia group from Holland, performed their original songs with the orchestra. My next three posts will be the arrangements from that concert.

Greg with the Garcia brothers.

The original “Lo mejor” (link below) keeps up a mid-tempo dance groove throughout. In each of these songs, I was looking for ways to create a dialogue between band and orchestra, rather than keeping the orchestra in a purely accompaniment role. So, on this song, I decided to begin with an extended, dramatic introduction before it kicked into its dance groove. Once the beat drops, the orchestra plays an accompaniment role, until…

Surprise! It’s a tuba solo. In the Mexican Banda style, tubas play a prominent role. I decided to tip my hat to that tradition by starting the mid-song breakdown with a tuba solo. Then comes a long build, beginning with the violin, moving through the strings, and then joined by all the bass instruments. After a quick recap of the chorus, the song concludes.

Sadly, I didn’t get a good video recording of the event. You will have to be satisfied with a demo of an early draft of the score. Email me if you’d like to take a look at the score.

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Art Music Choir Church Commissions Live Psalms

Let the Peoples Praise You

From 2000 to 2005, I worked at Northwestern College in Iowa, teaching music and worship in the music department, and leading chapel worship and overseeing worship teams for campus ministries.

In my second year there, a new president was inaugurated, and I was commissioned to compose a piece for the ceremony. I hadn’t thought about it much in the few decades since, but I recently found a recording from the inauguration and decided to clean it up and post it here.

I had forgotten how much I like it!

The lyrics are adapted from Psalm 67–a perfect Psalm of thanksgiving for a fall worship ceremony in the heartland of America. The meter is 7/8 throughout. I never strayed from a 2+2+3 rhythm; still, the choir hated me for the odd meter! The rhythmic vitality really drives the piece; it feels exciting and exuberant. The harmonic style is–I don’t know what to call it–pan modal? But I like it. There is a lot of bite in the harmonies, but they’re not so complicated the choir can’t find their notes or it leaves the audience scratching their heads.

It feels like it was an important step forward in my composing.

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Jazz Live Rock and/or Roll

Christmas in Michigan (Sax & Violins Edition)

Beer City Saxes and St. Sinner Orchestra joined forces for a Night of Sax & Violins on November 8, 2024 at The Stray. One of the songs we played together was a brand-new tune celebrating the magic of the holidays in the Mitten State: “Christmas in Michigan.”

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Jazz Live Rock and/or Roll

Broken (Sax & Violins Edition)

On November 8, 2024, the St. Sinner Orchestra teamed up with Beer City Saxes for an Evening of Sax & Violins at The Stray. It was an amazing evening of traditional jazz, rock and roll, and a bunch of stuff in between. I want to call it a “historic” or “ground-breaking” collaboration, but I’ll settle for “unprecedented” or “highly unusual.” The 22 musicians involved played beautifully and went home content.

Here is one of the five songs we played together: “Broken,” from our 2024 release, Synonyms for Goodbye.

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Art Music Commissions Live

Cannon

I was commissioned to compose a new piece for The Northwest Iowa Christian Schools String Orchestra Festival. The result is Cannon, which premiered on October 31, 2024.

It was a lovely performance featuring over 100 student string players. Here are the notes about the piece that appeared in the program:

I’ve always joked that I continue composing because I want to have my Pachelbel’s “Canon.” Though Pachelbel wrote hundreds of pieces, most of us only know his ubiquitous “Canon in D.” Not bad for a “one hit wonder”! As an homage to Pachelbel, I named my piece “Cannon in D Minor” and began composing. However, I soon ran into a problem: the orchestra would sound a lot better in a key like G or D. I transposed my draft to G and shortened the title to “Cannon” (this music is explosive in any key!) and got back to work. 

What emerged is a composition that is full of rhythmic energy and surprises. The piece begins with a bang, a fanfare that sets the tone for what is to come. Suddenly, the bombast stops and a stately canon begins. (You’ll remember that a canon is another word for round, where a musical theme is repeated in each section. Think “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”) After a brief reappearance of the fanfare, we enter an extended rhythmic section that has hints of Irish Jigs, African rhythms, and Rock and Roll. Once again, we hit the brakes for a canon, but this time it is a quote of Pachelbel’s “Canon”—with a twist. The orchestra has barely finished the first eight measures of Pachelbel’s theme when a solo violin interjects a theme of its own—a double-canon mash up of Pachelbel and Scheer that takes us to the final fanfare. 

Astute music connoisseurs will notice a unique feature of the “Cannon” orchestra: the addition of Acoustic Guitar, Piano, Percussion, and Drum Set. The idea of adding a rhythm section was suggested after the conductors heard some songs I had written for the St. Sinner Orchestra, a symphonic rock group I lead. I quickly agreed, being a composer who loves combining styles and timbres in fresh ways. 

Who knows? Maybe “Cannon” will be my Pachelbel’s “Canon”!

Categories
Jazz Live

Judah’s Jam

In honor of Judah Guerra’s inaugural Jazz Jam at the Rez, I wrote a little tune called “Judah’s Jam.” As you can hear from this video, he assembled a stellar group of musicians who slayed it all night long!

I obsessed about the tune all weekend long, thinking I should do a major re-write, but it went so well that I think I’ll just leave it as is.

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Arrangement Church Live

Hark the Herald, strings

This December, I wrote four string arrangements of Christmas carols for Wendell Kimbrough and Church of the Incarnation in Dallas. I was simultaneously planning a service of carols for Rosewood Church in Jenison, so I decided to get double duty out of one of the arrangements. This version of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” has a funky backbeat that gives a fresh new twist on the classic.

You can hear it at 13:27 in the video below.

If you’re interested in the music for these four Wendellified arrangements, you can find them here:

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Arrangement Church Congregational Songs Live

Refugee King, string arrangement live at Rosewood

A few years ago, I helped write a song called “Refugee King (Away from the Manger).” This year, I used it in a service accompanied by The All Saints Orchestra (St. Sinner’s holier half), so I decided to write a string arrangement for the ensemble. It’s very difficult to avoid gilding the lily on a song like this, but I think this arrangement strikes a good balance of background “string halo” and foreground string writing. I was especially pleased with the “running” figure in the instrumental verse.

Enjoy the dulcet tones of Lindsey Burkey singing with the All Saints Orchestra at Rosewood Church, Jension, MI.

Edit: I cannot for the life of me figure out how to make the video play from a particular spot, so if you’re interested in hearing “Refugee King,” go to 30:30 in the video below.

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Arrangement Church Commissions Live

Once in Royal David’s City (w/ Carlos Colón)

As the year ends, I’m going to try to catch up on blogging 2023 compositions. Posting them in 2024 will seem…stale.

This arrangement of the classic Christmas carol, “Once in Royal David’s City” is a collaboration between me and my old friend Carlos Colón. (That is not to say he’s elderly–we’ve just been friends for a long time.)

The arrangement began its life as a violin and piano duet written for Sarah York. Carlos used it in one of his Christmas services at Baylor University. Since he also had a cellist available, he had the cello double the bass line of the piano part. It worked splendidly. This Christmas he turned it into a full-fledged arrangement for strings and flute. Bravo!

Once in Royal David’s City for Strings
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Arrangement Commissions Global Live

Music Unites Us: The Making of…

We started this “Music Unites Us” series with an overview video introducing the project. We’ll end with this documentary that goes behind the scenes, interviewing the performers and me about the creative process. I usually hate watching videos of myself, but this video is interesting enough that I watched it all the way through!