A Triumph for the Persistently Nice

Program Notes

A Triumph for the Persistently Nice was written for Drew Hosler, a saxophonist friend whom I met during my doctoral years at the University of Michigan and who has, single-handedly, brought so much new tenor saxophone music to life that he deserves a little cloud in the saxophone pantheon. (He was one of the first ones to rope me into the saxophone cult, so if you ever get tired of my writing for these beautiful French boys, you should blame him.) 

The name and the concept is two-fold: the title itself is drawn from an article (of the same name) about John Verrall, an American composer based in the Pacific Northwest and whose music persists alongside his reputation as an overwhelmingly lovely and positive mentor. Having recently entered my doctorate and aiming towards teaching at a collegiate level myself, it mirrored how much I had been thinking about how to bring the most to a community, how to give to a space while also learning from it. 

This dictated the two movements: Twice for Flinching, about how we can get tangled in self-doubts in a way that actively prevents us from learning (let alone teaching)—and the titular movement, A Triumph for the Persistently Nice, the idea that we will always have something to offer those around us if we love those around us, learn from them, remain the eternal student and therein open to change. (On top of all this, I tend to think of the title as reflecting Drew a little because—dang, the guy is just really nice.)