Difficulty- Medium Advanced
Length- 4:30
Number of Players- 7 Players
Instrumentation- 2 Vibraphones (3.0), 2 Glockenspiels, Double Seconds (G3-A5), Desk Bells (1 chromatic octave C-C), Swish Knocker (or sizzle), 4 bass bows, Hi-Hat, Triangle, Brake Drum, Metal Mixing Bowl
Publisher- C. Alan Publications (www.c-alanpublications.com)
Program Notes-
"Writing a work for Matt Ehlers and the McCallum High School Percussion Ensemble was an extremely personal project: as a Mac Percussion alum (class of 2013, Go Knights!), I reflected on my time at McCallum, and what I hold in common with the performers in today's ensemble.
On the positive side of things, McCallum is a truly magical place, one that strongly encourages creativity and individuality. I owe a large part of my musical and personal upbringing to this culture of accepting and understanding. However, at the same time, high school is a time when young people are presented with the knowledge that the world isn't all sunshine and rainbows; nothing illustrates this better to me than the sense of urgency with which students have address the issue of a rapidly changing climate.
As a response to this idea, I decided to write a piece that uses no wooden instruments, including keyboards or drum shells, and is entirely metallic. In this, A World Of Our Creation is the dual world that we're moving towards: we've made wonderful, creative instruments and sounds, but there may be a point at which we will only have what we've created, and nothing else.
As dire as that may sound, A World of Our Creation is a call for creative solutions. In presenting some of my favorite creative sounds (bowed vibes, steelpans, desk bells), I hope to encourage a sense of continued activism, constantly searching for creative solutions to those issues that we know about, and those that are about to come." -Louis Raymond-Kolker
Composer Bio-
Louis Raymond-Kolker (b. 1995) is a composer and percussionist from Austin, Texas. He is a member of Inside Out Steelband, Larkspur Percussion Duo, and Trace Chamber Society, and teaches percussion at Winston-Salem State University and High Point University.
Louis actively works to facilitate the creation and performance of new music, and foster connections between composers, performers, and audiences. His compositions blend a sense of sentimentality, vivid imagery, and treating silly things seriously (and vice versa). As a performer, Louis specializes on steelpan, the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago, and regularly premieres new works for instruments in the steelpan family.
Louis is a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he studied percussion with Dr. Dave Hall and composition with Dr. Greg Simon. He completed his undergraduate work at Texas A&M-Commerce, where he studied with Dr. Brian Zator, Dr. David Davies, Dr. Andrew Lynge, Sandi Rennick, Kent Hillman, and J.J. Pipitone. Most recently, he studied as part of the University of Trinidad and Tobago’s APA Pan Fellowship with Dr. Mia Gormandy-Benjamin, Leon “Smooth” Edwards, Seion Gomez, and Josh Watkins.
Louis is a member of the Dream Educators Collective and the Black Swamp Percussion Educator Network. His compositions are published through C. Alan Publications (solo, chamber, and orchestra) and Boxfish Music Publishing (steelband).