Timpani Concerto

When I began to compose my own music (as a self-taught teen), I started with choral settings, but I also conceived the ambition to write a convincing concerto for timpani. In 1990, after running my own Baroque chamber orchestra for a decade, I realized I could now improvise fluently in that style.

I decided to create a quasi-Vivaldi-style concerto for timpani and strings—as a warm-up etude before writing my “modern” one. The Concerto con Timpani was the result. It was great fun to write, and is even more fun to play. I have learned that several young virtuosi have recently taken a run at the career of solo timpanist (which I once dreamed of). This first concerto is for them and their peers.

“I received the Concerto con Timpani today, put it up on the stand, and read through it–and I was grinning the entire time. . . At the concert the concerto was well received.”  Greg Candy, timpanist, who played the US premiere with the Farmington Valley (NY) Symphony under John Eeels.