In my second season creating and conducting educational concerts with Greensboro Symphony Orchestra for 7th grade students in Guilford County, North Carolina, we tried something new: a concert about orchestration with several interactive components, Thrills, Trills and Transformations.

The concert opened with The Thrill of the Orchestra, a lively composition for narrator and orchestra by Russell Peck that introduces kids to the instruments, colors, and capabilities of the symphony orchestra. Bill Flynn, a favorite radio personality in North Carolina, narrated Greensboro Symphony’s first performance of the piece since the passing of Russell Peck in 2009. Cameron Peck, Russell’s wife and 2nd Horn in Greensboro Symphony for a number of years, was in attendance at rehearsal and performance.

We continued with excerpts from the last movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony as well as the famous “love theme” from Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, animating on a large screen the layout of each orchestra score and zooming in to highlight several features in the orchestrations of each. Read the rest of this entry »

A rowdy and ready crowd turned out to the White Oak Amphitheatre last Friday, braving the windy weather in coats and scarves on the last evening of September to hear Wicked Divas with Greensboro Symphony Orchestra. It was the orchestra’s second performance in the brand new venue. Gracing our stage this evening were the larger-than-life personalities of Broadway actresses Alli Mauzey and Nicole Parker.

Nicole and I had been college friends at Indiana University and performed together in a variety of obscure rural venues before she went off and got famous on MadTV, as Elphaba in Wicked, in Europe with Full Frontal Comedy, and a variety of other exciting projects. Alli was new to me on this concert, but two bars into accompanying her at the piano rehearsal I was an instant fan. The program (from John Such’s Bravo Broadway series) included music from Gypsy, Chicago, Ragtime, Phantom of the Opera, and Wicked.

The excellent musicians of the Greensboro Symphony were able to parlay a rehearsal plagued by blowing music pages and collapsing stands into a most energetic and exciting concert. Thanks to Alex Forsyth for this great photography and to United Arts Council for permission to use. More can be seen on Alex’s Facebook album.

Somewhere southbound on A1A I realized it was time to announce that, as Obama would put it, “you will not see me” at Elon University anymore. I left my erstwhile academic position at the conclusion of the academic year in order to devote more time to Greensboro Symphony Orchestra and to return to some creative projects that have done little but gather dust for a few years now

Like most totally unknown composers, most of my music is written independent of outside demands – for who needs a commission? – and is various stages somewhere short of completion. In recent years I have spoken so much and recorded so little of this music that I suspect some colleagues cease to believe I have any new music written at all. So a task for the next season is to remedy that with indisputable evidence.

My calendar has been updated with the upcoming concerts, and some additional jazz gigs here and there will appear shortly. Among other exciting developments, Greensboro Symphony Youth Orchestra’s successes last season have resulted in regional touring plans which will take us to Asheville and Elizabeth City, NC. Details are forthcoming. I also look forward to an exciting season of young concert competition winners visiting Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, where I assist Dmitri Sitkovetsky.

For a few years I was a regular pianist in one of the house trios at Heidi’s Jazz Club in Cocoa Beach, FL. Driving 80 minutes down the coast from my main gig at the time at Seaside Music Theater, I had the privilege of playing a few times a week with drummer Stan Soloko and bassist Johnny Powers. Johnny, a beloved member of Central Florida’s jazz community for four decades, passed away while I was in the group, and his memorial service at the club violated multiple building capacity and safety codes as it overflowed with friends and admirers. Johnny was replaced by “Rabbit” Simmons on bass, who I only later found out is known and respected by musicians I run into all around the country. At the time I was mostly aware of his sensitivity to dynamics unlike any bass player I’ve worked with, his great sense of tempo, and his side-splitting break time humor. The trio morphed stylistically depending on the crowd’s, and our own, collective moods, covering at times jazz, standards, and even some Top-40 repertoire. We backed up vocalists Annie Sellick and Simone Kopmajer, and whoever else dropped in from time to time. It was one of those gigs. Among other things, I learned cops are not impressed with jazz musicians going 4 over the speed limit on U.S. Route 1 at two o’clock in the morning. I still drop in to Heidi’s when I’m in the area.

Below are a handful of tracks plucked from the depths of my MacBook Pro which spent countless evenings plugged into the soundboard immortalizing our mistakes. In early 2009, Stan, Rabbit and myself convened in Orlando to record a few tracks together and a few of those can also be heard here.

It Might As Well Be Spring : Recorded at the studio of Jeff Green in Orlando, FL. Rabbit Simmons (bass), Stan Soloko (drums).

I Loves You Porgy : Recorded on the same day. Both were recorded following a period of study with jazz pianist Lynne Arriale which focused on phrasing the melody from the words and motivic development.

The Very Thought of You : With Austrian jazz vocalist Simone Kopmajer. For this weekend Kevin Gallagher was on bass and Chris Nolin on drums, both friends and veteran players from the days of Seaside Music Theater. We accompanied Simone for the U.S. release party for her album Romance.

(more to be posted shortly)

From 2009 – 2011 I was Music Director of the Performing Arts Department and Music Theatre program at Elon University. Productions I conducted included Rent, Children of Eden, 110 in the Shade, and John Bucchino‘s piece It’s Only Life. Bucchino himself visited to coach the cast and to appear at the piano for all four performances. I also taught courses in Materials of Music for Music Theatre and Pop Music Repertoire. There are few parts of my schedule I enjoyed more than time in class with the Elon students, among the most talented people I have encountered anywhere.

Below are some of my favorite media taken during Elon’s rehearsals and production process of “Rent” which I music directed in February 2011.

This is a short video from FOX8 showing highlights of our Greensboro Symphony Orchestra Holiday Concert, Friday night, December 10 at the Greensboro Coliseum. The concert featured performances by the Greensboro Summit Figure Skating Club and the original rock band ‘Orleans’, with new arrangements by yours truly and my colleague Bryan Crook. See also this article.

My friend and colleague Dr. David Sasso, a psychiatrist at Yale University, has recently completed a chapter on performing arts psychiatry for the textbook Performing Arts Medicine which will be published later this year (Science and Medicine). As David was writing over the last several years we have had many conversations on psychiatric issues among performing artists. I had not however estimated my contributions significant enough to find myself in the acknowledgments as having “provided a vital perspective as a practicing performer.” It would appear I miscalculated.

Dr. Sasso is an orchestral and choral composer whose works have been played by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Indianapolis Children’s Choir. He is now forming a reputation in the young field of performing arts psychiatry, that is, understanding and treating performers who have psychiatric problems.

The recent reopening of the Henry Mancini Institute in Maimi, FL inspired me to write some remarks on my experience with this summer music festival during its years in Los Angeles. “HMI” was founded by family and protégés of the great film and jazz composer Henry Mancini and provided young orchestral players, jazz musicians, and composers the experience of life in Los Angeles studio, jazz, and film music. All participants were given full scholarships and mentored by some of the best musicians in Los Angeles.

As a composer participant for two seasons (2002 and 2004) I was commissioned to write orchestral pieces combining jazz with classical elements to be performed during the summer concert series at UCLA (University of California Los Angeles). The music can be heard and seen elsewhere on this site (see the Downloads page and this video). These summers afforded the chance to observe rehearsals with legendary Hollywood composers David Raksin, Johnny Mandel, Alf Clausen (of The Simpsons fame) and others. Musicians I met at the Henry Mancini Institute include Gordy Haab, Kyle Newmaster, Jack Smalley, Vince Mendoza, Justin DiCioccio.

In December 2002 following my first summer at HMI, Ginny Mancini, Henry’s wife of 43 years, presented me with the ASCAP Mancini Scholar Award at the ASCAP Awards at Lincoln Center. Incidentally, Stephen Sondheim received a lifetime achievement award at the same ceremony, slated to be the final event of the evening. Due to a blizzard my plane was hours late, and I wound up arriving just in time to follow this titan of music theater onto the stage at the last possible moment. Mr. Sondheim and I have never met, but I always felt I owed him an apology.

My connection to Henry Mancini through the circle of Indiana-based musicians who toured with him for decades, including Dick Dennis, Mike Lucas, Jack Gilfoy and Al Cobine contributed to making “HMI” an important part of my training in both composition and conducting. The Henry Mancini Institute closed in Los Angeles after the 2006 season and has recently reopened as a year-round program of the Frost School of Music, University of Miami.

In the last few weeks I learned of the recent passing of Maestra J. Karla Lemon, a remarkable conductor, teacher and advocate of new music, and director of orchestral studies at Stanford University for ten years. Read the rest of this entry »

This page contains reference materials for a project in progress. Information here is mainly for musicians involved. Others interested are welcome to have a look.

The music uses improvisation in a mixed band of strings, woodwinds, piano, mallets, bass, and rhythmic percussion. The main ideas were to incorporate elements native to both the classical and jazz musicians (to not “force” the classical players to think or sound like jazz musicians or the reverse), and to avoid sectional writing, giving each player an individual stake in the music. The only recordings so far are MIDI “demos” — computer-generated representations of how the music might sound when performed:

Supposition (Beversluis)
Score -  Listen -  Download

Crossing (Beversluis)
Score -  Listen – Download

Pictures from Point Reyes (Beversluis)
Score -  Listen – Download

Think of One (Thelonius Monk, arr. Beversluis)
Score – Listen – Download

No rehearsal, performance or broadcasting rights, expressed or implied, are granted. However if you take a mind to steal this music and accomplish any of that, I’d be fascinated to hear from you.

For several years I worked with Conservatory Theatre at the University of Central Florida in a partnership with Seaside Music Theater. Until it closed in late 2008, Seaside Music Theater brought professional theater of a rare caliber to Central Florida. I was present for the final few years of this company’s 26-year run for productions of Nine, South Pacific, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, White Christmas, and Peter Pan. I also conducted the company’s last major venture, a benefit concert performance of Les Miserables. Read the rest of this entry »

Ever since hearing Bill Holman’s album Further Adventures, I have been a fan of the Netherlands Metropole Orchestra. A combination symphony orchestra and jazz ensemble, it is the only permanent group of its kind in the world. I had the opportunity to see this group in rehearsal and performance under their new Music Director, Vince Mendoza, in Europe in 2005. I had studied jazz composition with Mr. Mendoza at the Henry Mancini Institute, and he later invited me to participate in his conductors seminar with the Metropole Orchestra in March 2007.

The participants were all classically trained conductors like myself, some with experience in jazz. Unlike other seminars  we’d all attended, this one didn’t include a single piece of music by Schumann, Brahms or any of the classical canon. Instead we had prepared repertoire by composers including Jeff Beal, Bill Holman, Jim McNeely, Bob Brookmeyer, and Vince Mendoza himself, composers whose orchestra music uses both jazz and classical elements and involves improvisation.

The central topic was groove. This unfortunate term invariably elicits smirks from classical musicians, conjuring images of skating rinks, mirror balls and the works of John Updike — residue from its cousin, the word “groovy.” Speaking to a concert audience with amusement and some consternation, Vince Mendoza told a story of an academic thesis committee he once sat on who asked a composition student to “define groove” … alas. It may be that jazz terminology cannot hope to come under the austere rubric of academia with hipness intact. Vince had come up with a compelling answer, however: “groove is a frame of reference for pulse.” Tapping his foot on the stage floor with unbelievable rhythmic commitment, he told how “everything has a pulse” — everything in music and in the rest of life, and groove refers to the way interactive events are organized around pulse. The focus of the seminar was to accustom us conductors to working with repertoire in which  groove is a fundamental point of reference.

Every participant was thrilled for the opportunity to, as Vince Mendoza put it, “drive the Ferrari.” Easily the hippest string section I’ve seen anywhere, a rhythm and percussion arsenal that would have provoked Berlioz to revise his Grand Traité d’Instrumentation et d’Orchestration Modernes, and a wind and brass complement that raises concern for the overall structural integrity of the building.

Epiphany Theater Company commissioned me to compose incidental music for their 2006 production of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House in Saratoga, NY. Written in 1889, A Doll House tells the story of Nora Helmer, whose past crime of forging her father’s signature returns to threaten her husband’s social and business standing. In first concealing the crime and later reckoning with its consequences, Nora realizes she has become a “doll” to her husband, and that they do not understand one another despite eight years of marriage.

Ibsen’s description of the Helmers’ residence includes a piano, and in Acts II and III NORA dances a tarantelle accompanied by DR. RANK. These clues made solo piano the obvious choice for both the incidental and “source” music (music played as part of the action). Knowing the music should reference a style of the period, I began with some late Romantic piano conventions in mind but introduced more contemporary harmonic and rhythmic disturbances to suggest unrest and the breakdown of appearances.

The music was conceived as a set of cues rather than as discreet compositions and was recorded with special effects of distance, reverb, crowd noise, etc., to enhance the storytelling.

Cue 1: Opening Act I (Listen)

Cue 5: Opening Act III; Tarantelle as introduction, fading into a waltz that accompanies the conversation between MRS. LINDE and NILS KROGSTAD “(…Dance music is heard in the room above…)” (Listen)

Cue 6: Accompanies the sequence starting from MRS LINDE’s line “Hush! The tarantella! Go! Go!.” The Tarantelle is heard from the floor above. (Listen)

Cue 7: Closing Act III, immediately following HELMER’s line “The most wonderful thing of all–?” (Listen)

In the course of preparing this production I was privileged to have lunch and a long conversation one afternoon in Saratoga with Brian Johnston, a foremost Ibsen scholar and translator who originated what is now known as the Ibsen Cycle. Anyone interested in Ibsen or dramatic art in general will be fascinated to browse Professor Johnston’s website, Ibsen Voyages.

Richard F. Dennis, known to many as Dick Dennis, was a violinist, string teacher, and conductor who worked internationally as concertmaster for touring artists including Henry Mancini. He later led the orchestra program at North Central High School in Indianapolis, IN for 32 years. When he died in late 2005, his school district commissioned a new orchestral work in his memory. It was an honor to be chosen as composer of this work and as a guest conductor for the Dick Dennis Legacy Concert the following year. The orchestra of well over 100 players comprised current students at North Central High School supplemented by professionals including Mr. Dennis’s colleagues, friends, and former students from around the country.

For the memorial composition I decided on a two-part suite in Hungarian nationalistic style. The two movements were a depiction of the two sides of the typical Hungarian character, which Dick Dennis exemplified; one side quiet, introspective, and at times gloomy, the other side playful and exuberant. The second movement was a Hungarian Dance in the spirit of the twenty-four such dances for piano (and later orchestrated) by Brahms, which Dick Dennis loved. Many of Brahms’s dances are based on Hungarian folk melodies; mine is original, but anyone who knows Brahms’s music, or heard Dick Dennis whistling in his office, will notice my indebtedness to these two sources.

I was sure Dick Dennis would not want an “easy” piece written in his memory; this piece observes none of the limits on accidentals, rhythms, tempi, etc., one would usually find in music for a young orchestra. Efforts to get the suite published or otherwise made available have been hampered by this and my limited reputation in the educational music market — built to date, in fact, on this single composition. A score of the Hungarian Dance can be viewed here.

Richard F. Dennis on Lifestory.com

Richard F. Dennis Memorial Endowment

Going to Go Indigo (Score)
Nathaniel Fox Beversluis, Composer/Conductor
Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra
Royce Hall, UCLA, August 14,2004

This composition was commissioned by the Henry Mancini Institute in summer 2004 when I was a composer participant. It was performed on the Mancini Musicale honoring Burt Bacharach who performed on the second half. The concert was hosted by Patrice Rushen and Steve Tyrell. For more information read my Memories of the Henry Mancini Institute.