Composer
Small follows in the tradition of 18th- and 19th-century pianist/composers. In addition to music for the piano, he has written works for woodwinds and other instruments, ensembles and the symphony orchestra, as well as choral pieces and music with narration. He has received commissions from such organizations as the Washington Ballet, Three Rivers Piano Competition, Georgetown Symphony and Paul Hill Chorale, and he was the winner of the 1999 Marin Ballet Dance Score Competition. From 2000 to 2003, he was composer-in-residence with the Mount Vernon Orchestra.
In 2005 Small completed "Renoir's Feast," a piano piece commissioned by the Phillips Collection to celebrate the return of Renoir's painting Le Déjeuner des Canotiers (Luncheon of the Boating Party) to the Washington gallery. Small approached the endeavor in a manner reminiscent of Moussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. He studied biographical information on each of Renoir's friends and acquaintances who were pictured in the boating party in order to create a portfolio of musical portraits, then established continuity among them with a recurring theme representing the flowing of the river.
In 2006 Small composed a suite of miniature blues and jazz pieces, "Scraps," for Dutch pianist Marcel Worms's multi-national Blues Project.
In 2007 he was commissioned by pianist Soheil Nasseri to write "Lullaby of War," an emotionally charged series of piano accompaniments and interludes for the recitation of several poems about war from various eras. Although the piece expresses a powerful anti-war sentiment, a preview performance featured readings by a U.S. Air Force general and his wife. Nasseri performed the world premiere of the composition in Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, and was soon invited to perform it in Berlin, with Small narrating.
Renoir's Feast and Small's own orchestral transcription of Scraps have been published by PeerMusic.
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