A lot of people think you have to be a musician to commission a piece of music. While a soprano, Andrea Elenbaas, DMD knows this isn't true. She knows that all you need is a love for music. She once commissioned me to commemorate a mutual friend with several new pieces (i.e., Four Art Songs (2014), "The Crew That Never Rest" (2014): two movements for alto sax and piano, and seven pieces for solo piano entitled Tableaux d'une petite fille (2014)). She is also a person who is intrigued by new experiences, and so had me write An Invocation for Creating Sacred Space (2015) for a Fire Ceremony held by members of The Four Winds Society. Commissioning music is paying a composer to write a new piece for a specific purpose or event. My friend Andrea knows that anyone can do it. She knows commissioning is important because it allows one to become an active participant in the creation of a musical legacy for posterity, something which gave her a profound sense of satisfaction. She has said of my music that it is "amazing!" She has also said, "You are so amazingly talented," "I am so excited to hear your music," "That is absolutely gorgeous," "I love your work," "I love listening to our work," "All the work you have done is amazing," "Love it," "Great job," and "Everybody loved it!!!!." If you think I might be the right composer for the piece you want to commission, just contact me here.
I Want to Commission a New Piece. Where Do I Start?
ZANE GILLESPIE
After six years as Minister of Music at Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church (UMC) in Holly Springs, MS, I was recently called to continue to work to address public engagement in music participation as Director of Music Ministries at First UMC in Water Valley, MS. I am a Composer, Theorist, and member of both The College Music Society as well as The Poe Studies Association (PSA). I am also an active pianist and vocalist, specializing primarily in church music. My paper entitled ““Mesmeric Revelation”: Art as Hypnosis” has been published by the international, peer-reviewed journal Humanities. In addition, another paper of mine entitled “A Model of Triadic Post-Tonality for a Neoconservative Postmodern String Quartet by Sky Macklay” has been submitted to the peer-reviewed Music Theory journal Perspectives of New Music. At the end of February 2015, I served as Chair for the session entitled “Aesthetics and Philosophy” at The Fourth International PSA Conference in New York City. On June 21, 2014, my Quartet for Alto Saxophone and Strings, a commission from concert saxophonist Walter Hoehn, was performed as part of Concert V of the Eighth Annual Belvedere Chamber Music Festival held at Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Memphis, TN. Characteristically neo-romantic (in the original sense of the word), my music earned me the Nancy Van de Vate Award for Composition three times from the University of Mississippi Department of Music. A native of Pontotoc, MS, I hold degrees from the University of Mississippi (BM; MM), and the University of Memphis (DMA) where I was the 2011 recipient of the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music's Smit Composition Award. I live in Memphis, TN.