Mary Hopper taught at Wheaton College Conservatory of Music for more than 40 years, and was one of my professors when I was a student there in the late 1980's. Dr. Hopper has been a very enthusiastic supporter of my writing for decades, and the Men's Glee Club alumni association (to which I belong) commissioned me to compose a new setting of her favorite psalm, Psalm 96, to celebrate and honor her before her retirement. 

Since Dr. Hopper conducted both the men's and women's choirs at Wheaton they asked for the piece to be for mixed voices. They also wanted "something that's not a funeral dirge," and along the lines of another of my pieces, a Men's Glee Club favorite, "No Night There," which Dr. Hopper programmed regularly over the years. 

The premiere, at the 2022 Men's Glee Club spring concert, totally surprised Dr. Hopper (not an easy feat with that many people involved!) when the Women's Chorale walked on stage at the close of the concert and joined the men. I was thrilled to be in attendance and to be able to add my "personal touch" with gratitude for a professor who has touched countless lives.

Friends University (Wichita, KS) has a longstanding tradition of presenting annual “Christmas Candlelight” choral concerts during the holiday season. In 2011, I was a relatively new member of the faculty at the school, having started “JVE,” a jazz vocal ensemble in 2009. Dr. Mark Bartel, Director of Choral Music and director of the school’s beloved Singing Quakers, served as musical director for the Christmas concerts. He commissioned me to write an arrangement of “O Come, All Ye Faithful” for the Friends University Choral Union, the combined choirs of the university.

I worked to craft a festive, jubilant, traditional arrangement that would interest and inspire choirs and audiences alike. By adding a few musical twists such as a stanza with mixed meters and another with contrasting slow, lush, a cappella harmonies, I attempted to infuse some freshness into the familiar carol.

The final stanza includes opportunity for audience participation before a final, celebratory choral ending. Dr. Bartel programmed the arrangement for multiple years before leaving Wichita in 2019 to accept a position at Ambrose University in his native Canada.

For many years I received an annual commission from Wartburg College (Waverly, IA) to arrange a jazz standard for the Wartburg College Castle Singers, a well-regarded college choir. In the summer of 2011, their director, Dr. Jane Andrews, commissioned me to compose what remains to date the largest choral work I've ever written, the five-movement Jazz Mass. 

Dr. Andrews requested the text to be set in English to make it more accessible for audiences, but to include some of the best-known Latin phrases. Each movement is composed in a different jazz style. The Sanctus, the fourth movement, is a harmonically lush jazz ballad. 

I was grateful to hear the Castle Singers perform Jazz Mass live on tour once in Kansas City. It was a delight to hear this work brought to life and sung with such passion. Afterward it was my honor to finally meet Dr. Andrews and the students in person. 

During my times as director of the Friends University Jazz Vocal Ensemble, I programmed Jazz Mass in 2014 and again in 2019 for my final concert. The Friends University Singing Quakers, whom you hear on the recording, also performed portions of the Jazz Mass in their concerts.

The parents of a Wheaton College friend and classmate, Jack Boeve, had heard my compositions and arrangements during our student years at Wheaton, since Jack and I were in the Men's Glee Club together. 

Several years later they commissioned me to write a new SATB arrangement of a Men's Glee Club favorite from my era, "Jesus Is the Song," which was eventually published. 

Around that time, their Minister of Music was retiring and their choir wanted to honor him with a new arrangement of How Great Thou Art, his favorite hymn. I arranged the piece in a festive and traditional setting for SATB voices, organ, brass, and percussion. Their choir premiered the piece in a special concert on June 5, 2005, and I was delighted to be in attendance to conduct the premiere. 

My first full-time position was Pastor of Worship and Music at First Baptist Church, Wichita, KS from 1990 - 2002. My immediate predecessors, Ken and Joanne Forsyth, were much loved by the church, had developed a very well-structured music program with multiple choirs and ensembles. Ken and Joanne had moved to Topeka, and a few years later I was contacted by a member of their choir at Countryside United Methodist Church, who wanted to do something special for them. 

We settled on a new tune for one of the Forsyth’s favorite hymns, “For the Beauty of the Earth.” One thing that stands out in my memory about discussing the commission was a request for the piece to open with the melody in the bass part, since 1) Ken was a bass (as was the person commissioning me) and 2) most choir anthems usually give the initial melody to the sopranos. Personally, this piece has been a favorite and was published by Beckenhorst Press. 

If there is a living legend in Wichita, Dr. Cecil Riney is it. His tenure at Friends University (Wichita, KS) bore much fruit over many decades, and perhaps none more than in his role as the director of the university’s beloved choir, the Singing Quakers, into the 1990’s. Shortly after his "retirement," a Singing Quaker Alumni Choir was formed, which he then directed for another couple decades. Upon his "second" retirement, as the director of the alumni choir in 2015, I was commissioned to compose a piece to honor Dr. Riney at their annual fall concert.

I selected a lesser-known hymn text by Philip Doddridge, “God of My Life! Through All My Days,” which I thought underscored both Dr. Riney’s longevity, his skill as a choral director, and faithfulness to God.

The first stanza reads, "God of my life, through all my days
I'll tune the grateful notes of praise; The song shall wake with opening light, And sing unto the silent night."

This joyous piece, for SATB voices, with organ, brass, timpani, chimes, and percussion was premiered by the Singing Quaker Alumni concert. It was my honor to conduct the premiere and honor this beloved icon of not only Wichita, but American choral education. 

It's not uncommon when I do a commission for the person commissioning to have another of my pieces in mind as a reference for the mood or style they would like. This was the case here.

Joe Nidever was preparing to take his youth choir on a summer tour and when he contacted me he mentioned he had enjoyed my two part arrangement of "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee," and was wondering if I could do a similar arrangement of the classic hymn, "Come, Christians, Join to Sing" for his youth choir.

I was happy to oblige and the arrangement was published in 2023 by Choristers Guild. 

Ephesian Samba was commissioned specifically for the 2004 Southern Baptist Church Music Conference held in the Washington, D.C. area. 

The parameters for the piece were two-fold: 1) a text based on Ephesians 5:19-20 (Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.) and 2) for something "different from the norm" of many commissions (e.g., a big traditional choral piece with organ and brass). The person commissioning me wanted to set this commission apart from prior years.

I took that request to heart and composed a samba! It was premiered by a youth choir at the conference, and later published by LifeWay (now permanently out of print, sadly).

What's particularly interesting (and gratifying) to me is that (judging from the number of YouTube videos) the piece seems popular in Brazil, after someone translated the text into Portugese and gave it a Portugese title, "Efesios de Samba."