Sigma Alpha Iota

Fall 2020 10 P A N P I P E S G rowing up in Escanaba, MI, a young man does not expect to end up composing Symphonies and Concertos as an adult. My first musical inspirations were Bob Dylan, e Beatles, Felix Mendelssohn, and Ludwig van Beethoven. I listened to those records over and over again. ough I did not realize it at the time, my future career and success with music was the result of two specific, hard-working people: my Junior High string teacher, Clara Embs, and my High School choral teacher, Conrad Beck. At that time, in the early 1970s, schools in Michigan were well-funded, with many opportunities to hear and perform great music. In High School choir we sang Bach Motets, Palestrina, madrigals of omas Morley, and Orff ''s Carmina Burana. At high school solo-ensemble festivals I heard the Khatchaturian Piano Concerto, and other exciting instrumental pieces. With all of that great music in my head, I picked up my guitar and wanted to be a singer- songwriter, like James Taylor or Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. I was into my 30s before I realized I needed a whole lot more than popular music. A human spirit requires more depth of content than any form of popular music offers. is is exactly why Classical music has remained successful for over 300 years. In 2020, many people who love Hollywood movies also love Classical music without realizing it. e soundtracks of John Williams, Howard Shore, James Newton Howard, Lalo Schifrin, and older Hollywood composers, Alex North, Miklós Rózsa, and Henry Mancini are all forms of Classical music. And so is the current music of Charles Roland Berry. I have never composed the entire soundtrack for an entire film. My soundtrack work includes short episodes in a number of films: Spider-Man Homecoming, John Wick -Parabellum, Mark Walhberg's e Gambler, Equalizer 2, Ted 2, Tammy, e Interview, Chappaquiddick, Kept Woman, and How To Train Your Dragon. My music has also been used in TV shows, such as Weeds, Lucifer, Sons of Anarchy, Lilyhammer, and Gotham. ose films and SpongeBob Squarepants have paid my rent for the past ten years. My serious music, the music which means most to me, are my Classical compositions for orchestra and chamber ensembles. I launched the concert-composer part of my musical life in 2008, with the release of my Cello Concerto, Symphony no. 3, and other works on Centaur Records (CRC 2898.) ose recordings were my first opportunities to work closely with an orchestral conductor and a professional symphony orchestra, the Janáček Philharmonic and the Moravian Philharmonic, both in the Czech Republic. e conductors were American-born artists, eodore Kuchar and Joel Eric Suben. Last month in September 2020, I was scheduled to record my Symphony no.4, Divertimento for Orchestra, and my Cello Sonata in Lviv, Ukraine with eodore Kuchar. Two days before my flight from Seattle to Ukraine, that country and several neighboring countries closed their borders to foreign visitors, because of Covid. Like everyone else on the planet, I have re-scheduled my life under the new rules. Perhaps we will record these works in November, or next year. is is the good news about Covid: I felt stuck at home, with nothing worthwhile to do in March, April and May. I took that time to compose my very best chamber music so far: String Quartet no. 9 Virus Days, String Quartet no. 8, Calliope for Oboe, Violin, Cello and Piano, and my Cello Sonata. Here I realized the immense value of Classical music. I was not 45-Year Musical Odyssey Roger Barnstead SAI Composers Bureau member Charles Berry in a Masonic Lodge COMPOSERS

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