classical
Brightmoor
Premiered February 27, 2018 at An Die Musik in Baltimore.
Brightmoor is a musical journey through the rise and fall of one of America’s hardest hit neighborhoods, located in the northwest corner of Detroit. The piece spans a timeline of over one hundred years, beginning when Brightmoor was a flourishing community—hailed as an exemplary of the American dream—to the present day, when almost three quarters of the homes are vacant or burned down, and many streets go on for miles without a single occupied building.
The piece is in two acts. The first, for solo piano, loosely follows the story of a family caught in the grips of change, describing their struggles and triumphs. The second act, for string quartet, distributes musical elements of the family’s story within the larger context of the neighborhood.
Saunders, composer/pianist and former resident of Brightmoor, performed together with the string quartet led by Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Jonathan Carney, BSO violinist Boram Kang, BSO principal violist Lisa Steltenpohl, and cellist Jacques-Pierre Malan.
More information about the movements and form of the piece can be found by going to the Youtube page of the linked videos.
Part 1
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Movement 1 – The Felonious Funk (0:00 – 6:34)
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Movement 2 – Teddy Bears and Liquor Bottles (6:35 – 15:09)
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Movement 3 – Passacaglia (15:10 – end)
Part 2
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Movement 1 – Virgil (0.00 – 2:49)
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Movement 2 – Bentler (2:50 – 6:08)
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Movement 3 – Glendale (6:09 – 9:59)
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Movement 4 – Fenkell (10:00 – 18:06)
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Movement 5 – Eaton (18:07 – 24:14)
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Movement 6 – Blackstone (24:15 – 32:54)
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Movement 7 – Darcy (32:55 – end)
Detroit
– For Piano & Orchestra
Performed by Sam Saunders and the University Symphony Orchestra in Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor Michigan.
This piece was inspired by the city of Detroit, Michigan. I began teaching music in some of Detroit’s most underserved areas in the winter of my sophomore year. These early experiences in Detroit evoked raw, powerful emotions that inspired me to write this piece. I spent the next eight months creating Detroit, a single movement, 15-minute piano concerto.
Over the past 50 years, Detroit has experienced tremendous change. Once the wealthiest city in the country, Detroit now suffers from the nation’s highest crime and poverty rates, and has an estimated 90,000 vacant buildings. The population has decreased from 2.2 million to less than 700,000.
Scenes from Appalachia
Winter 2013
This piece was written during my freshman year at Michigan, when I felt homesick for West Virginia. It depicts several scenes from adventures in my home state – mountain biking, rock climbing, hiking, and whitewater canoeing.
River rapids inspire the mood. The beginning of the piece portrays a moonrise over the New River. As I was writing this, I often looked back to one of my favorite memories for inspiration, the night a paddling friend and I navigated the Class V rapids of the New River Gorge under a full moon, starting at midnight without artificial light. The piece follows the quiet ripples of the river, growing into the roaring and churning waters below. Other scenes are interspersed throughout: the beauty of West Virginia’s rolling hills, the thrill of racing through the woods on a bike, the quaintness of the small towns.
Towards the end, the piece builds into a fugue, combining elements from many of these scenes, coming and going in an energetic flurry.
Into the Depths of Madness
November 2014
During my freshman year at the University of Michigan, I was a flanker on Michigan’s rugby team. I loved playing, but I suffered three concussions. The cumulative effect of these concussions put me in an altered state of mind – voices right next to me sounded like they were echoing far off in the distance; I would wake up in the middle of the night with no perception of who or where I was – I felt entirely disassociated from reality. This feeling went on for almost six months, temporarily convincing me that I had gone crazy.
I began working on “Into the Depths of Madness”. Writing for hours a day in a dimmed room, I originally had no concept for the piece. It was only after I had finished, and returned to a normal state of mind, that I could see what I had produced. The composition was my attempt at putting into music what is almost impossible to put into words – the feeling of losing one’s mind.