Orchids Grow Here

Orchids Grow Here

Winds, Brass, and Percussion
Duration: 4:00

2 Alto Saxophones
2 Tenor Saxophones
Baritone Saxophone
5 Bb Trumpets
4 Horns in F
3 Trombones
Bass Trombone
Tuba
Timpani
Percussion
Piano
Double Bass

“The evening began with a commissioned fanfare by University of Miami professor Dorothy Hindman, who told the audience she designed her celebratory piece around her backyard orchids. Orchids Grow Here resonates brightly with bells and brass, with what seems like dozens of motifs climbing simultaneously upward. There is a disorganized exuberance in it — simultaneous melodic passages, no two of them exactly alike. Playful touches include the growl of a trombone and a faint echo of wind chimes.”
~Andrew Meacham, “Trumpeter is the highlight of a concert featuring ‘West Side Story’ themes,” Tampa Bay Times, 2/18/18, 12:16 PM

Program Notes:

I left my hometown of Miami, Florida straight out of graduate school in 1994 to marry my true love. Sixteen years later, we both returned to join the faculty of the acclaimed Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. Since that time, I have discovered to my delight that orchids will happily grow outside in South Florida. I have since filled my garden with orchids.

The motives in Orchids Grow Here for wind ensemble (2017) are like the blooms on a spray of orchids: elegant repetitions of glorious colors and shapes that are similar yet individual, beautiful, essential contributions to the whole. In this work, I hope to capture the ebullience and effusive joy of the prolific sprays of orchids that grace my garden each spring.

Also, I honor the multitude of individuals, like orchids on a spray, who have contributed time, talent, energy and financial support to create something glorious and beautiful: fifty successful years of The Florida Orchestra.

Orchids Grow Here was arranged in 2018 for orchestra for the Sinfonia Gulf Coast and Demetrius Fuller.

Commissioned by The Florida Orchestra, to celebrate their 50th anniversary season
Premiere: The Florida Orchestra, Michael Francis, conducting
February 16, 2018, 8:00pm – Tampa, Straz Center
February 17, 2018 at 8:00pm – St Petersburg, Mahaffey Theater
February 18, 2018 at 7:30pm – Clearwater, Ruth Eckerd Hall