Quinn Mason was born in 1996. The first performance of A Joyous Trilogy took place at the Shorecrest Performing Arts Center in Shoreline, Washington, on February 15, 2020, with the composer conducting the Harmonia Orchestra. A Joyous Trilogy is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, three percussion (percussion 1: crotales, vibraphone, glockenspiel, xylophone; percussion 2: triangle, suspended cymbal; percussion 3: bass drum, tam-tam), harp, and strings. Approximate performance time is fifteen minutes.

A Joyous Trilogy, by the American composer and conductor Quinn Mason, was commissioned by Orchestra Seattle and Seattle Chamber Singers (OSSCS), now known as Harmonia. Mason dedicated A Joyous Trilogy to his “mentor and friend” Will White, Harmonia’s music director. The composer led the Harmonia Orchestra in the world premiere of A Joyous Trilogy, which took place on February 15, 2020. A Joyous Trilogy has since been performed by numerous orchestras throughout the United States and Europe. The work was the First Prize Winner of the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of New York’s 2020-2021 Emerging Composers Competition: Orchestral-Division II, and earned an Honorable Mention from the 2021 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Awards.

In composing A Joyous Trilogy, Quinn Mason sought to create accessible music “that was the very embodiment of happiness.” The work’s three movements are played without pause. Running (Fast, energetic) exudes an irrepressible energy and spirit. The work’s slow-tempo movement, Reflection (Tranquil, with little movement), spotlights an extended and lyrical trombone solo. The finale, Renewal (With energy), brings A Joyous Trilogy to a rousing close.

Program notes by Ken Meltzer