Completed in 2009, Kinetics was my first serious work for wind band.

Coming from an orchestral background, I was captivated by the driving, rhythmic energy that abounded in the band world. In particular, Frank Ticheli’s Blue Shades inspired several key moments in the piece, from the swung 8^th-note feel to the bombastic climaxes. Performing Ticheli’s work with my high school’s Wind Symphony was among the highlights of my entire music education.

In August 2020, I revised the piece significantly in order to enter it into the High School division of the First Annual Barbara Buehlman Composition Competition. I replaced the lush (but perhaps overlong) central section of my original version with a compact new developmental section more satisfying to my 2020 tastes. In the outer sections I focused on more clearly stating and restating the main themes.

To my amazement, the panel of adjudicators—which included Mr. Ticheli himself—selected Kinetics as the first prize winner of the competition, a storybook fortune for a piece written as a tribute to the band repertoire at large.