Songs Without Words
After years of playing vocal music with both singers and instrumentalists, I've developed ideas about how to create particularly vocal effects without words. Key to this idea development are some wonderfully helpful, sensitive instrumentalists, who, through intense collaboration and steady projects, as well as sending their students to me, have allowed me to nurture my ideas. The first instrumentalist who brought this concept to my attention as a mentor twenty years ago was saxophonist Donald Sinta.
Melodies for voice and piano written by composers from Mozart through Berlioz, Brahms, Respighi, Mahler and Rachmaninoff include songs ideally suited to a wind or string instrumentalist's artistry. Suggestions about expression and rubato could add even more personality to an already beautiful interpretation.
This is a master class information sheet designed specifically for working with wind instrumentalists: Songs for Wind Players.