I have a couple of news items to share with NYCC.

First, Cambria Music has just released a CD titled Windows (Cambria 1264), featuring violist Louise Schulman and guitarist Bill Zito. The CD includes my Four Miniatures (2003) composed for and dedicated to Louise and Bill. Other works by Beethoven, Schickele, Ibert, Ravel, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Arnold Rosner, Piazzolla, and Scheidler are also included. It should be available on Amazon and Spotify soon.

Second, I have been recently informed that my opera for young audiences, Rapunzel, will be mounted this Spring by the Pittsburgh Festival Opera (http://www.richardbrooksmusic.com/operas/Rapunzel/Rapunzel.html). The opera was commissioned in 1968 by the Tri-Cities Opera in Binghamton, NY. At that time I was second chair violist in the opera orchestra. The company was receiving Federal funding to perform in area schools but it was having trouble finding suitable operas. The company directors knew I was a fledgling composer and decided to ask me to compose something. Though the funding program ended before I complete the work, the company did a fully-staged production in 1970. Subsequently it has been mounted by the Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia, Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts, the Denver Symphony/Central City Singers and, most recently by the Cincinnati Opera (65 performances!). Pittsburgh is planning six performances in the Spring and possibly a couple more in the summer. I never expected my little opera to be the most frequently performed of all my works.

Richard