Sunset on Mount Begbie (2019, 2020)

For Symphonic Orchestra

Score sample here.

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For most of my early middle and high school years, I lived in Revelstoke, a small ski town in the middle of the Canadian Rockies. Easily visible from the townsite is a mountain with three peaks and a large glacier named Mount Begbie. Whether you are going to Revelstoke for the first time or have lived there your entire life, the hues that are created from the light reflects off of the triple peaks and glacier are unlike anything else you’ll find in the valley, and dare I say in the whole of the Rocky Mountains.

My years living in Revelstoke set the foundation for my later blossoming as a musician, and despite the relatively small size of the school, we had an excellent music program under the baton of Tessa Davis. She was the first of my music teachers who told me that I could make it in the world of classical music, and also got me started with playing horn. If it weren’t for the influence she had on me all those years ago, it’s very likely that I would have chosen a different career path (probably as a pilot). This piece was written as a thank-you gift for all the things she and the RSS band did for me in growing me both as a musician and a person.

The original version for wind symphony was written with smaller ensembles in mind, and the same holds true with this orchestral arrangement, working well even for ensembles with as few as 12 string players.