Lagniappe Brass - Vibrant Colors - Music for Brass by Douglas Hedwig (2022)

VIBRANT COLORS: Brass Music of Douglas Hedwig features a wide range of musical styles, from intimate to epic. Central to the compositional style of Douglas Hedwig are contrast and variation. Some of the works on this album are tonal, while others explore the dramatic and expressive realm of atonality. Some are smooth and lyrical, while others are more angular and declamatory. Some feature the more mellow sounding, conical bore instruments (horn, flugelhorn and tuba), while in other works the more brilliant-sounding cylindrical bore instruments (trumpets and trombone) are more prominent. Taken together, the compositions showcase the rich and varied palette of the brass family of instruments.

Douglas Hedwig’s instrumental, vocal and electronic compositions have been performed at major festivals, in concert halls and cathedrals, and at colleges and universities throughout the world. Large-ensemble premieres and concerts include performances by the North/South Chamber Orchestra in New York City, Concerto Chamber Orchestra in Los Angeles, California, Waterbury Symphony Orchestra in Connecticut, U.S. Army Band at West Point, Chesapeake Brass Band, Chestnut Brass Company, and by members of The Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Music Festival. In March 2023 his Symphony No.1 “Journey in 4 Movements” will receive its World Premiere by the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra, Kayoko Dan, conductor.

Hedwig’s chamber music works have been featured at the London New Wind Festival, Festival (UK), Festival Osmuse in Belgium, Frontwave New Music Festival in Florida, New Music on the Bayou Festival, and SonoKlect New Music Festival in Virginia. His fixed-media electronic music was performed at the Seoul International Computer Music Festival in South Korea, and in February 2020 two concerts in celebration of The Music of Douglas Hedwig were presented at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

His music has been especially well-received in Italy, including performances in Venice, Siena, Orvieto, Milan, Brescia, Trento and Desenzano del Garda by established ensembles including the Dèdalo Ensemble, MotoContrario, NED Ensemble Orchestra d’Archi, Orvieto Musica and the Banda Città del Palio. His l’Altre Stelle for guitar was recently premiered at the Verdi Conservatory in Milan, presented by the Società Italiana Musica Contemporanea, and performed at the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro.

Professor Emeritus at Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, Dr. Hedwig also served on the faculty of The Juilliard School. He is the recipient of fellowships and residencies from the Siena Art Institute, Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts and Willapa Bay AiR. He is a winner of both the Gaetano Amadeo Prize in Italy and the American Prize in composition. Hedwig is an elected-member of the American Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

Prior to turning his full creative energies to composition in 2012, Hedwig was an internationally recognized concert and recording artist, having played trumpet with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for 27 years and recorded more than 40 commercially released albums in a variety of idioms, including participation in the 1978 Grammy-Award winning recording of Porgy and Bess with the Houston Grand Opera. He is included in the 2013 publication, Trumpet Greats, edited by David Hickman, Edward H. Tarr and Michel Laplace, as one of the most important trumpet players, internationally, since 1594.