All Works

text by Langston Hughes

This piece pays homage to my family's four generational affiliation with the Pentecostal church. My intent is to re-create the musical experience of an African American Pentecostal church service that I enjoyed being apart of while growing up in this denomination.

My intent is to re-create the musical experience of an African American Pentecostal church service that I enjoyed being apart of while growing up in this denomination.

Bill Traylor was born a slave in Alabama in 1853 and died in 1949. He lived long enough to see the United States of America go through many social and political changes. He was an eyewitness to the Civil War, Emancipation, Reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation and the Great Migration.

An arrangement of this classic aria from the 24 Italian Art songs collection.

As the son of a Pentecostal preacher, no other memory stands out more than being a part of a “tarrying service”. The “tarry service”, usually on Friday nights, was for those members (mostly teenagers) who had not received the gift of the Holy Spirit.

These words were written in 1922 at a time when African American were making progress in a severely hostile American society.

This piece is an artistic reflection dedicated to those who have been murdered wrongfully by an oppressive power; namely Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner and Michael Brown.

Film Cue with Middle Eastern influence.

Score for the First Runner Up for the Marvin Hamlisch Film Scoring Contest

Marvin Hamlisch Film Scoring Contest WINNER

This piece was inspired by a journal entry from Ludvig van Beethoven’s notebook written in 1815: “Iliad. The Twenty-Second Book But Fate now conquers; I am hers; and yet not she shall share In my renown; that life is left to every noble spirit And that some great deed shall beget that all lives shall inherit.”

These are my feelings on the crimes of BOTH the oppressor and the oppressed in Baltimore and throughout the country.

Dance has always been a part of any culture. Particularly in Black American communities, dance is and has been the fabric of social gatherings. There have been hundreds, perhaps thousands of dances created over the span of American history that have originated from the social climate of American slavery, Reconstruction and Jim Crow. This piece is an orchestral study of the music that is associated with the Ring Shout, the Waltz, Tap Dance and the Holy Dance. All of these dances are but a mere representation of the wide range of cultural and social differences within the Black American communities.

Feeling 70's Funky...

My patriarchal heritage shows three generations of preachers. My great grand father, Bishop Henry C. Brooks, who began preaching in 1925, my grandfather, Bishop Charles W. Hairston in 1947 and my father Bishop Carlos O. Simon, Sr. in 1994. I chose to use audio clips from past sermons after discovering old LP and several old cassette tapes of sermons from my great grandfather and grandfather.

Journey is inspired by the following poem: Life is a Journey From once proximal end to other.

As young boy, I worked with my grandfather during the summers paving driveways in Rocky Mount, Virginia. He was a task master. Things had to be done the right way and with haste when he asked for it in his own playful way.

Let America be America again.

A mellow jazz composition...

"The second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' No other commandment is greater than these." Mark 12:31 NLT

The uncles arrive in Chicago after dark at their sister’s apartment to pick up their niece Conchetta. Big city music. Conchetta is thrilled to go “home” to see her relatives—her grandmother, her aunts, her “play aunts.” She sings about the rough world of the big city and longs for the small town life in Tennessee.

Art songs have long been an interest of mine. The vocal works of Maurice Ravel, Richard Strauss and Arnold Schoenberg have always seem to ignite my passion for composing music

This piece traces the evolution of black people in America through the lens of the black woman.

Requiem for the Enslaved explores the sacred and historical, and honors the lives of those bought and sold. Original text by Marco Pavé.

An original composition using the Sanctus from the Latin Mass.

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot is perhaps one of the most well known African American spirituals. As beautiful and rapturing as its melody is, it should be.

Hymn Arrangement of Sweet Hour of Prayer

“The Block” is a short orchestral study based on the late visual art of Romare Bearden. Most of Bearden’s work reflects African-American culture in urban cities as well as the rural American south.

This piece is inspired by Emma Lazarus’ gentle, welcoming words in her poem, “New Colossus”. Lush, bright harmonies in the strings are used to represent hope and unity.

This piece explores African American folklore as well as Afrofuturists stories. This work is commissioned by the Sphinx Organization for its 25th Anniversary and the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra.

Between 1916 and 1970, the mass exodus of African-Americans leaving the rural South, seeking homes in the urban West, Midwest, and Northeast became known as the Great Migration.

The theme that he and his librettist have chosen — acceptance of same-sex marriage within the black church — is a challenging one.

This piece was inspired by an interview with Oprah Winfrey

The pandemic of COVID-19 has continued to influence my social, professional and personal life in ways that I never imagined.

The pandemic of COVID-19 has continued to influence my social, professional and personal life in ways that I never imagined.

Commissioned by the Gabriela Lena Frank Music Academy in response to the COVID 19 pandemic.