Commissioned in 2011 by a consortium of 11 of the country’s top clarinetists, American composer Scott McAllister has written the single longest solo work for clarinet and piano, aptly entitled: Epic. The piece draws inspiration from McAllister’s life experiences as a clarinetist and composer, including traditional warm-up exercises, orchestral excerpts, composer Aaron Copland, clarinet legend Robert Marcellus, folk singer Richie Haven’s High Flyin’ Bird, and even the late pop icon Michael Jackson. This will certainly be a performance worthy of the title Epic, and is not to be missed!
SSG Timothy Sutfin, clarinetist with The U.S. Army Concert Band, will be the first member of the consortium to perform this piece publicly in its entirety. He will be joined by SSG Yalin Chi, pianist with the U.S. Military Academy Band at West Point. The world premier performance will be give at Brucker Hall on Historic Fort Myer in Arlington, Virginia on April 10th at 7:30 PM. If you are unable to make it to Arlington, catch the live audio-stream at www.usarmyband.com.
