jonnythunder3483

Hey Chris, thanks for doing the ama!

I'm a big fan of your work, especially Baba Yetu. I played that twice this year (on trumpet) at the high school level in two different "video game live suites", one with the wind ensemble and one with the student symphony.

I love your writing, and music has always been really important to me. For my "senior song" this year, I arranged a song I wrote on piano for a whole band score and I'll be conducting it in just a few weeks. That was the first time I've done that, and it was very difficult.

When you're composing something, how do you work with instrumentation? As you write, when you create a melody line or whatever else, do you have in mind what instruments you want to play it already? Or does that often change as the piece becomes more fleshed out?

Also, what's your favourite and least favourite instruments to use in compositions?

Thanks for your time!

Thanks so much for responding!

That's really interesting, though I guess that kind of makes sense given the styles of music.

As a trumpet player, I still have to agree with you on French horns haha

I'm in desperate need of a name for the piece I wrote that I'll be conducting soon. It's somewhat slow and pretty for the first half, then it becomes intense and heroic, then returns to the original melody but with more intensity. Any name suggestions? Haha it would be great to say that you gave me the name for my piece!