Passages (Sea Songs): This music draws from memories of the sea. When I was a teenager, I spent about a month on a sailboat in the Bahamas. I remember especially sleeping on the deck of the boat and waking up one morning to a feeling of great peace caused by the open sea, the sound of the waves, the sun on the horizon, and the open sky at dawn. Then there were the nights with the symphony of stars more numerous and bright than I ever knew they could be. At one point we stopped on some obscure island where I wandered around and found an old cemetery that was on the beach. The grave stones were slowly being buried by the encroaching sand. These are some of the memories that inspire the music.

Seis preludios a la flor encendida: These collection of preludes are all based on a number sequence that to this day I find fascinating. The thematic material I use is a row of numbers that resemble in order the serie of planets in our solar system and the seven spectral-type-stars. My research on the concept of the ‘music of the spheres’ started many years ago when I was introduced to a riddle exposed by Plato in his tenth book of the ‘Republic’. In awe I have seen my research flourish onto many coincidences that have inspired most of my works. For instance, this sequence equals, in number, all doors at the ancient Maya city of Uxmal. Interestingly enough, when added together, all the numbers in the sequence add up to 365. As an artist, I have been told that the most important thing is the end-result of a musical work and that the material from which this music derives is only secondary in importance, however, it is still fascinating being able to use both sides of the brain in this matter.

Etude Fantasy is based on a short theme composed for organist Madame Durufle who visited the Trinity University campus on the Parker Chapel Organ Recital Series in 1993. The theme was the basis for her improvisation which closed her recital. Trinity University Organist David Heller then commissioned Etude Fantasy the following year (1995) and premiered the piece in Milwaukee at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in April of 1996. About eight minutes in duration, the work explores the various motivic and melodic relationships inherent in the theme through a variety of moods and textures.

A Little Suite of Thoughts
This suite consists of three movements for organ and oboe or English horn. Each movement could be titled simply: Thought One, Thought Two, and Thought Three. This would be appropriate if the music were atonal, but alas these are unashamedly tonal, and so titles and program notes may help to interest the listener.

1. Precious Are Thy Thoughts ---This composition calls forth thoughts of beautiful places of nature, places that bring joy and peace to the soul of the beloved. Perhaps a view of gardens within a valley when such a view inspires thoughts of peaceful pleasure. It is in three sections. The first is constructed from a simple diatonic melody that is carried mostly by the oboe. The organ provides one, sometimes two counter melodies. The harmonies reach into modal realms. The thoughts invoked are essentially peaceful and harmonious. The second section has the organ singing simple two voice counterpoint while the oboe comments on the thoughts tumbling from the organ. Again the thoughts are not troubling. The third section lovingly recalls the thoughts of the first section and somehow accommodates the new jumble of happy thoughts from the first section.

2. The Mermaid Commentaries---This piece was inspired by the W.B.Yeats poem, ”The Mermaid.” There are several meanings of love exposed in this poem. This movement gives voice to the thoughts of the beautiful mermaid who accidentally falls for a young lad swimming in the ocean. He returns the feelings. How can it be otherwise, it seems. All is bliss until the mermaid takes her new love home to meet the family. Alas!

3. For Those Who Love Thy Beloved’s Name—The name of your beloved makes the happy creature think of peacefully beautiful excursions taken together. One scene comes to mind, that of the expansive Genessee Valley in the fall season. The grapes are ready for harvest. The day is not to be forgotten.

Confrontation: This work, written in 2007, consists of two contrasting sections by two percussionists. The piano, instrument of all the instruments, combines elements of two traditional procedures of confrontation, loud voice and persistent bluntness. The percussion instruments are to be played with some pianistic approach in order to have harmonizing relationship with the pianist. Thereafter, two players seek for a continuing conversation rather than a confrontation, as the world seeks for peace but not succeeding. Who will be the winner?

Graeme Francis is a native of Prince Edward Island, Canada. He received his undergraduate degree in music education from the University of Western Ontario, in London, Ontario, a Masters in Percussion Performance at Southern Methodis University in Dallas, and is currently finishing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also Lecturer in Percussion at the University of Texas at San Antonio. His percussion instructors include Dr. Jill Ball, Dr. Thomas Burritt, Doug Howard, Kalman Cherry, Ed Smith, Tony Edwards, and Brannen Temple. He has performed with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony, Prince Edward Island Symphony Orchestra, the Rome Festival Orchestra, and the UWO Sunday Chamber Music series. His musical activities encompass a wide variety of music from orchestral to jazz to world percussion. Graeme has recorded with the Meadows Wind Symphony on the Gaspapro label, and with the University of Texas Chamber Singers for Naxos records.

Charles Goodhuue, while pursuing a career in the Life Sciences as reseracher and inventor, maintained his musical activities and studies in the areas of composition and piano performance. Since retiring from sciences he devotes more time to musical intersts.

Misook Kim, received her B.A. with the honor of Cum Laude from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. After finishing her “New Star Concert” sponsored by the Cho-sun Newspaper, she entered the graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin where she completed her M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in composition and the certificate of piano performance. Reviewer Mike Greenberg, writing in the San Antonio Express-News, called the composer ‘a bold and unrepentant modernist’. He also has mentioned ‘each of her works presented thus far has impressed with its fearless modernism, its concision and its strong individual profile’.
Kim has performed as a composer as well as a pianist in various concerts of her own works from solo to larger ensemble compositions throughout the States and Korea. Including commissions for the MUSICOPIA Concert, Olmos Ensemble, she has won International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM) Judith Zaimont Award and the Long Island Arts Council International Composition Competition in 2007. She was a former faculty member at The University of the Incarnate Word and Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. She had also served as a music director at KUMC. In Fall 2006, Kim joined the faculty at the Conservatory of Music at Wheaton College, IL.

Timothy Kramer's works have been performed widely throughout the United States, from Carnegie Hall to college campuses, and in Canada, Mexico, Europe, South America, and Asia with performances by the Indianapolis, Detroit, Tacoma, and San Antonio Symphony Orchestras, the Winters Chamber Orchestra, North/South Consonance, the SOLI Ensemble, the ONIX Ensemble (Mexico), Luna Nova, and the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings. He has received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the NEA, the MacDowell Colony, Meet the Composer, BMI, ASCAP, the American Guild of Organists, and the American Music Center among others. His degrees are from Pacific Lutheran University (B.M.) and the University of Michigan (D.M.A.), and he was a Fulbright Scholar to Germany in 1988-89. Originally from Washington State, he is now Professor at Trinity University in San Antonio where he also runs CASA (the Composers Alliance of San Antonio). His works are published by Southern, Earnestly Music, Hinshaw, and Selah and are recorded on Calcante, North/South, and Capstone.

S. Beth May orgainlly hails from West Lafayette, Indiana. She currently resides in Texas, where she serves on the music faculty at Northern Vista College while concurrently pursuing her DMA in Composition at the Univesity of Texas at Austin. She received her bachelor's of music in composition at the university of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her masters of music in composition at Yale University. Following this, she lived in Namibia for two years as a Peace Corps colunteer. Her works have been performed inlocales including Washington State, Washington D.C., Connecticut, New York, London, Illinois, Texas and Indiana

Ken Metz is an associate professor of music at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. There he teaches music theory, composition, and other theory related courses. His main scholarly focus is composition and his music has been performed across the United States. He is currently a member of CMS, SCI, ASCAP, NACUSA, and CASA (Composer’s Alliance of San Antonio). After serving as a co-host of the 2006 Society of Composer’s Inc. national conference he was appointed co-chair of SCI Region VI. He was also recently elected vice-president of the Southwestern conference of the CMS.

Currently, Juan Luis de Pablo Enriquez Rohen lives in México where he teaches harmony, counterpoint and analysis at the Centro Morelense de las Artes in Cuernavaca, Morelos. He also gives periodical seminars in theory at the Escuela Superior de Artes de Yucatán and at the Conservatorio de Música de Querétaro, José Guadalupe Velázquez. He is a member of the Centro de Creación Musical de Querétaro, the Composer´s Alliance of San Antonio and is a registered composer at BMI Classical. Juan Luis holds a Bachelor’s degree in Composition from Trinity University and a Master’s in music composition from the University of Houston.

William James Ross is a native Texan born in Dallas. His major teachers in composition were Ross Lee Finney and Leslie Bassett at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Karl Korte and Joseph Schwantner at the University of Texas. Active as composer, conductor, performer, and teacher, he has won prizes both for his compositions and his organ playing, and has been listed in Who's Who in American Classical Music since 1981. His works have been published by several publishers. His Danny Boy (Meditation on "Londonderry Air") has recently been published in multiple editions by C.F. Peters Corporation, including a new version for 2006. Mr. Ross is presently Minister of Muisc for First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Antonio, where he has served since 1993.

Sherry Rubins directs the percussion program at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Mrs. Rubins is currently Acting Principal Timpanist with the San Antonio Symphony, and she has been the principal percussionist/timpanist with the Mid-Texas Symphony since 1991. She has been Vice-President of the Texas Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society as well as on the faculty of the Interlochen Arts Camp, the Texas Music Festival at the University of Houston, the Stephen F. Austin University Percussion Symposium, Texas Lutheran University, and the University of Houston. Mrs. Rubins has presented clinics and concerts at the Texas Bandmasters Convention, Texas Music Educators Convention, and the Texas Day of Percussion. In the fall of 1998 she co-presented a fundamental mallet clinic at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Orlando, Florida. Mrs. Rubins is a busy freelance performer throughout the South Texas area and she is also an educational clinician for the Zildjian Company.

Mark Twehues is the Director of Instrumental Music at the North East School of the Arts where he has been a faculty member since coming to Texas in 1999. He has performed with the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony of the Hills, and the San Antonio Wind Symphony. He is also a board member of the San Antonio Wind Symphony. He is the Director of Music at San Pedro Presbyterian Church and one of the music directors on the staff at the San Fernando Cathedral.He holds a Master's Degree in Oboe Performance from The Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. He spent three years doing postgraduate study in orchestral conducting at the Hochschule fuer Musikin Vienna, Austria. Beginning with his first professional conducting engagement at age thirteen he has conducted operas, orchestras, musicals and choirs for over thirty years. Along with conducting, Twehues has been a professional oboist and private teacher for over thirty years.

Geoffrey Waite, a native of New York State, currently free lances in San Antonio and the central Texas region as a collaborative pianist and keyboard specialist in venues ranging from classical and opera to music theater and jazz. He has served as a member of the professional accompanying staff for the University of Texas at San Antonio, and has shared the recital stage with numerous regionally and nationally known artists. Mr. Waite received his BM from Westminster College in Pennsylvania, and his MM from Syracuse University in New York State. He is the pianist for the San Antonio Symphony Mastersingers chorus, and has performed with the San Antonio Symphony, the San Antonio Lyric Opera, the San Antonio Choral Society, and the Children's Chorus of San Antonio. An accomplished and versatile organist as well as an experienced choral conductor. Mr. Waite is currently Artist in Residence at the Episcopal Church of Reconciliation in San Antonio.