The music of composer Haskell Small has been presented across the U.S. by several distinguished performing organizations and soloists and heard in a number of important venues during the 2002-2003 concert season.

First off, the June 1 and 8 World Premiere performances in Alexandria, Virginia of Mr. Small's Double Concerto for Bassoon, Piano and Orchestra with the composer at the piano, bassoonist Arnold Irchai and the Mount Vernon Orchestra, under their Music Director Ulysses S. James.

This was actually the third piece Mr. Small has written for the Mt. Vernon Symphony, the others being Really? An Orchestral Suite and Fantasy of the Red-Eyed Creature. Really? consisting of five movements - 1. Why?, 2. So What!, 3. Are you Sure?, 4. How Did We Come to Be?, 5. Oh, Really? was commissioned by the Mount Vernon Symphony, as part of the composer's residency with that group, and is scored for 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 Bb clarinets (2nd doubling bass clarinet), 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 3 Bb trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, 2 percussion, harp and strings.

Joan Reinthaler wrote the following about Really? for the Washington Post, "Small's piece is a delightful, witty and concise contribution to the repertoire. The music so perfectly curls itself around these titles, says its piece and then stops that it left the audience chuckling. The winds had a field day in their roles as question-answerer and idea-debunker."

The first piece that came from this partnership was Fantasy of the Red-Eyed Creature, a 2001 work created as a collaborative project between the composer and 3rd grade students at Mt. Vernon's Fort Hunt Elementary School.

The Washington Post said of the premiere, "The 15-minute piece is scored for orchestra and minimal narration, but it is not hard to imagine the addition of dance and a more fully developed narration. The story, the adventures of three children who encounter a monster, is delightfully reflected in the music. The children gambol about in the lilting French sounds of two flutes and a clarinet, while the monster cavorts in the naughty suggestiveness of a piano, bass clarinet and string bass jazz trio. Small is an exquisite orchestrator ... this piece has real possibilities. It got a first-rate performance and five of the children were on hand to share in the applause."

This work was funded by a grant from the American Composers Forum for Mr. Small to work with the Mount Vernon Orchestra and students at Mt. Vernon's Fort Hunt Elementary School to create a complete musical production. The students worked with Mr. Small to create a story and he created the music to enhance the story's theatricality. This project was part of the business partnership between the Mount Vernon Orchestra Association and the school.

In other performances, pianist Soheil Nasseri gave the New York Premiere of Mr. Small's 3 Etudes in Sound at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall on Feb. 11, 2003.

"New Music North" in Thunder Bay, Ontario included the composer's 12 Snippets in this year's festival - June 5-8th, 2003.

Haskell Small has been commissioned by the Phillips Collection of Washington, DC for a new solo piano work to be premiered at the opening of their new center in 2004 or 2005.

Pianist Haskell Small will be giving a number of performances of J. S. Bach's The Goldberg Variations around the U.S. in the coming season, beginning with a recital in Houston, Texas on Saturday, August 2.

In early 2004, 4Tay Records will release a new CD of Haskell Small's superb performance of J.S. Bach's The Goldberg Variations.

The 25th Goldberg Variation of Mr. Small's recording will be used as background music for an upcoming Voice Of America TV program on the artist Andrew Wyeth.

This will join Mr. Small's critically acclaimed CD The Twisted Pine Branch on the 4Tay label. For more information about these disks, please visit http://www.classicalcds.net.

You can read Lisztian Sparkle, a marvelous interview with the composer in England's Music & Vision daily classical music webmagazine.

For more information about Haskell Small, including a bio, list of compositions, piano performances and more, visit http://www.jamesarts.com/h-small/. You can also contact Jeffrey James Arts Consulting at 516-586-3433 or jamesarts@worldnet.att.net.