Charles Griffin is a very busy composer whose works are being performed across the U.S. and around the world. Here's a sample of upcoming performances of his music, commissions and other activities:

Most important is the May 3 World Premiere of Concerto for Chamber Orchestra by the Westchester Chamber Orchestra, Barry Charles Hoffman, Founder and Artistic Director. The Premiere will be given at Christopher J. Murphy Auditorium on the campus of Iona College in New Rochelle, New York.

The composer has written about the new work, "My plan for the piece was to take the Baroque Dance Suite as a loose starting point, because it was the model for internationalism of its time. The piece is in four movements, each corresponding to a typical Baroque-era precursor, but with a contemporary eye toward the meaning of internationalism today."

Movement titles include Trance Overture, Pavane and Tierra de luz, Cielo de Tierra. Much more about the piece, including sample pages of the score, at http://charlesgriffin.net/archives/204.

The Westchester Chamber Orchestra is a fully professional orchestra, quickly becoming known in and outside of Westchester County for its first rate and inspiring performances, world class soloists, innovative programming and its World Premieres of meaningful new works it has commissioned. Now beginning its seventh season at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, the WCO was founded in 1984 by its Artistic Director, Barry Charles Hoffman. For many years the WCO gave its concerts at various sites throughout Westchester County and in 1994 began its association with Iona College.

Visit them at www.westchesterchamberorchestra.org.

This piece was created for a consortium of orchestras and two other groups are already committed to the project - Western Piedmont Orchestra (North Carolina, John Gordon Ross, Director) and San José Chamber Orchestra (California, Barbara Day Turner, Director). Orchestras in Arizona, Illinois and Virginia are also considering being part of the project.

In other upcoming performances, the London-based Ivory Duo (Natalie Tsaldarakis and Panayotis Archontides) will perform his From the Faraway Nearby, a suite of six pieces inspired by paintings by the American painter Georgia O'Keeffe, on Saturday, April 26, at the historic Waltham Abbey Church in Essex, north of London.

May 3 & 4 in Boston, Massachusetts - The Lorelei Ensemble, an 8-voice women's vocal ensemble, directed by Beth Willer, will perform the composer's El Paso de la Siguiriya.

Also on May 3, in Liepaja, Latvia, the Germany-based piano duo of Francis Gailus and Sana Villerusa will perform my From the Faraway Nearby at the Latvian Symphony Orchestra Hall.

Pianist Ana Cervantes will play Griffin's Murmuring in Comala at the Raritan River Music Festival on May 31 - 7:30 PM at Clinton Presbyterian Church in Clinton, New Jersey as part of her Rumores de Paramo Mexican/American Music Celebration.

On June 6 and June 7 (both concerts at 8pm) the Manhattan Choral Ensemble will perform the World Premiere of Griffin's Lux Aeterna, the conclusion of the ensemble's New Music for New York project for this year. This was work was composed specifically for this concert to complement the performance of Rachmaninoff's masterpiece, All-Night Vigil (more commonly known as his Vespers). The performance will be given at Holy Trinity Church, 213 West 82nd St. in Manhattan.

Transcontinental Music Publishers (the world's leading publisher of Jewish Music since 1938) will soon be releasing the composer's Hashkivenu, a setting in Hebrew and English of this traditional prayer for peace. (http://www.etranscon.com/)