A Note From the Composer:
In college, I finally began to feel confident enough in my compositional abilities that I started advertising that I was available to commission. The first person to come to me was one of my good friends and fellow composition majors, David Richardson. He wanted a piece for trumpet that wasn’t too stressful to play – one that could simply be enjoyed. David was also a talented jazz musician, so whenever I began writing the piece for him, I naturally wrote in a jazzy feel. However, since I had never actually written jazz or heavily studied jazz theory, what came out was more of a celtic/jazz mix. Nonetheless, it was very fun to work on, and the optional snaps were the first type of body percussion, as well as audience participation, that I ever included in a piece. After the piece was complete, David suggested that he perform it on flugelhorn instead, and the sound of the instrument fit very well with the tone of the piece. Finding My Way was premiered on February 8th, 2022 during David’s senior trumpet performance recital at Hardin-Simmons University and was accompanied by Cody Hutcheson.
