Given all that our world has experienced in the past several years, it is safe to say that we all find hope from different places. It’s essential to our very existence and carries us through the times most difficult and hard to explain. Personally, I have found my students to be the strongest source of hope over recent years. Watching them respond to and continue to deal with the effects of a global pandemic continue to amaze and inspire me to get up each day and go to work. As we have inched our way closer to a normal we once knew, I can’t help but feel the hope for a brighter tomorrow rises with each passing day. Hope Rising was not written for any specific person or group, but is meant to allow performers and audiences to reflect on anything that gives them hope.

NOTES TO DIRECTOR

Thank you so much for choosing my piece for your students and ensemble! This work has several concepts that I hope your students can strengthen while playing this piece:

• Phrasing

• Releases

• Dynamics & Balance

This piece is specially designed to work on the skills and concepts necessary to begin approaching slower and lyrical repertoire. As you prepare to play this piece, work these concepts into your warm-up and daily fundamentals, if you haven’t already. Included in the score are several supplemental exercises. Consider utilizing this free resource! Identifying the melodic content and focusing on the releases between measure and phrases will allow the students to get the most musical satisfaction from this work.