Good morning, friends, and happy Pride! Today I’m thrilled and proud to introduce you to a consortium that’s been in the works for months: Echoes, a five- to seven-minute piece for cornet and piano. I am joined on this project by Jen Oliverio (she/her), a dear friend and one of the most astounding performers I know. This consortium is a continuation of my commitment to making direct engagement with my work more financially accessible to performers and contributors of all backgrounds; by keeping buy-ins far lower than standalone commissions, I’m able to interface with more performers as I’m crafting new pieces, which strengthens the music that ultimately emerges.
Along with being my administrative secret weapon for this consortium, Jen is also kindly serving as my primary sounding board for the nuances of cornet playing that I as a trumpet player am still learning. Thanks to her stewardship, I’m confident that I’ll be able to not only avoid putting my musical foot in my mouth but also craft a sound world that marries the instrument’s long history with my own artistic practice. Jen will also give the world premiere of this piece (exact date TBA), and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about flying out to wherever she’s going to play it just to experience the awesomeness in person.
But what exactly are we doing with this piece? Check out the basics immediately below, then read on for more about subject matter, stylistic construction, tier benefits, and more! (And if you’re not a performer but want to support this endeavor, click here for the bit where I speak directly to you.)
Brass Tacks (condensed consortium details)
- Run time: 5-7min
- Difficulty: advanced but approachable—appropriate for undergrads but with opportunities for exploration that also suit professionals
- Anticipated range: Written Ab3-Bb5
- Delivery: no later than August 31st, 2025
- Cost: $50 or $75, depending on your tier (see below for benefits breakdown)
- Payment deadline: August 20th, 2025
- Exclusivity: September 1st, 2025 (or date of delivery)-August 31st, 2026
Subject matter
The concept driving Echoes is a collaborative one, centered on ideas of play, growth, and self-love. When Jen and I sat down for our first discussions on this project, she told me that one of her great joys in life is her child and all the ways he interacts with the world. We spoke at length about all the marvelous ways little kids learn and engage, from the endless parroting of early vocabulary to their astounding capacity to make up songs. I found myself reflecting on my attempts over the past several years to claw back my own sense of play, which had been gradually shut away over a period of decades as people close to me repeatedly deemed my curious creativity too much for polite society. Because my artistic practice commonly grapples with intensely traumatic experiences, I’m constantly searching for ways to let some light back into both my creative practice and my life—and intentionally reaching for playfulness, hope, and joy has been central to that goal.
Ultimately, I hope to make Echoes a marriage of Jen’s experience watching her little one grow and my own reflections about those silly, genuine parts of me that I still keep close to my chest. Although it will be more technical than the lyrical solos newer listeners may know me from, this piece will be imbued with the same commitment to and care for the performers that trumpeters may already know from go to the garden and body, mind, and heart. If you’re new to my work, feel free to check out either of those pieces to get a sense of my ethos from their program and performance notes.
Stylistic considerations
Echoes will maintain many of the practices I’ve introduced into much of my solo and chamber writing over the past several years. Where appropriate, ossia staves or optional alternate passages may be provided to best suit the cornettist. My performance notes will also thoroughly discuss any alternate notations or extended techniques that may arise (though at this time I’m not actively planning on using anything that would go beyond notations you’d see in standard orchestral music).
I do anticipate that Echoes will involve some use of call and response between the pianist and cornettist—and the cornettist may not always be in the lead! Pedagogically, I expect that developing musicians will be able to put on a solid performance without hours and hours of rehearsal time with their accompanist. However, I hope this ultimately provides an opportunity for teachers to approach two topics with their students: first, how to put together a thoughtful, musical performance despite limited rehearsal time with an accompanist, and second, how long-term work with a pianist can craft uniquely compelling performances.
Consortium Tier Benefits
We’re offering two consortium tiers for Echoes, priced at $50 and $75. No matter which tier you sign up at, you and the rest of the consortium will receive performance exclusivity from the date of delivery through August 31st, 2026. That’s a full year—maybe a little longer, if I finish early. Our tier-specific benefits break down as follows:
If you sign up to the Tier 1 for $50, you’ll get a copy of the score and parts (PDF), plus your name on the score and in corresponding marketing materials, such as Echoes’ product page on my website.
If you sign up to the Tier 2 for $75, you’ll get all of the $50 tier benefits, plus one link of your choice (your website, SoundCloud/YouTube/Bandcamp, etc) alongside your name on my website and one virtual rehearsal with me. I’ll happily provide feedback or guidance if you need it, or you can ask me a bunch of questions, spend some quality time bemoaning your least favorite concerto, or share cool YouTube videos back and forth! Your choice. Members of the $75 tier will also have the opportunity to request a signed, spiral-bound hard copy of the score, which I will produce and mail to you after the piece is delivered. (Ask anyone who got a hard copy from me at ITG in 2023—my scores are pretty and I make fun full-color covers when I print them!)
Join the Echoes Consortium
We have a limited number of performer slots available for this consortium. To reserve yours, click on the button below or use the link below this paragraph to fill out our Google Form. You’ll need to give us your name (as you want it to appear on the score!) and email, along with a few other small pieces of information so we can get your contract rolling. You’ll also need to indicate what tier you want to sign up at ($50 or $75). If you have any comments or questions for us as part of your signup, you can drop those here, too—we’ll try to answer them as we onboard you! The registration form will not ask you for any payment, so don’t worry about that right now.
We’ll send onboarding emails to everyone who signs up until all slots are filled (and if a space becomes available later on, we’ll shout it out). Jen will formally welcome you aboard, and I’ll follow soon after with some additional information you’ll need as we move through this process together. On June 15th, we’ll send you and all the other consortium members payment information, and you’ll have from June 15th through August 20th, 2025 to submit your $50 or $75. (If you haven’t submitted payment by 11:59pm Pacific time on August 20th, you’ll be dropped from the consortium, but you’ve got a bunch of time until then.) I’ll send a couple email updates to the consortium over the summer, probably with little snippets of what I’m writing, and you’ll receive the finished piece—with your name listed!—no later than August 31st by 11:59pm Pacific. Sometimes I work ahead of deadline, so you may get it earlier!
A note for everyone interested in the $75 tier: I tightly control what links I do and do not allow on my website, and as a general rule I do not allow advertising for non-musical or non-artistic businesses or organizations in these links. I also reserve the right to deny the placement of any link that is incompatible or otherwise unaligned with my values. If you plan on taking advantage of the link placement in the $75 tier, please reach out in advance with any questions. I’m happy to provide clarification or alter your registration prior to payment if you decide a refusal of your link would mean this tier isn’t for you. (This paragraph will be repeated later in the non-performers section in case folks skipped down there.)
Teacher-Student Opportunities
One of my rules for my solo consortia is that I want to include developing performers whenever possible, and I know how hard it can be for undergraduate students in particular to afford even the cost of a regular-price score. During the consortium recruitment for Echoes, Jen and I will reach out to a small number of teachers who have joined and offer an opportunity for one of their students to join the Echoes consortium free of charge. If you have a student in mind who would not otherwise be able to take advantage of a consortium due to cost, please don’t hesitate to reach out and let us know—you can include that information in your registration form or let us know later on.
If You’re Not A Performer
If, by some machinations of magic or fate or mere happenstance, you’re not a performer—or maybe even not a musician of any kind!—and you’d like to support the creation of this work, I am MORE than happy to have you on board! While performers are the ones who will ultimately give Echoes a life in concert halls and venues, your assistance is vital to making the piece happen in the first place. You do not need to have a way to perform this piece to join our consortium; there is no requirement in the contract that says “you will give a performance” and I will never expect you to! Consortia can sometimes be intimidating to look at because we spend so much time discussing the technical details of the piece in these pitches, but when I’m speaking to the consortium at large, I very much enjoy breaking away from the jargon. (Here’s an early update from go to the garden as an example.)
To sign up as a non-performer, you’ll follow much the same steps as everyone else; just select “I am not a performer” when prompted and fill out the form! A note for everyone interested in the $75 tier: I tightly control what links I do and do not allow on my website, and as a general rule I do not allow advertising for non-musical or non-artistic businesses or organizations in these links. I also reserve the right to deny the placement of any link that is incompatible or otherwise unaligned with my values. If you plan on taking advantage of the link placement in the $75 tier, please reach out in advance with any questions. I’m happy to provide clarification or alter your registration prior to payment if you decide a refusal of your link would mean this tier isn’t for you.
Thank You, and Welcome
If you’ve read this far, thank you so much for your time and attention. Every moment each of you engages with my music and practice is so, so special to me, and I’m more grateful than I can possibly tell you (though I will try). Jen and I look forward to welcoming you into the consortium!
[Oh, and if this isn’t the project for you but you’d like to see me run a consortium for your instrument or (standardized) ensemble, hit that Contact form and let’s get something going.]
