Carson Cooman's "Where all the Ladders Start" reviewed in the ITG journal

Carson Cooman's work for Trumpet and vibraphone "Where all the Ladders Start" was recently reviewed in the International Trumpet Guild Journal :

from the October 2010 issue of the International Trumpet Guild Journal

Cooman, Carson P. Where All the Ladders Start. Musik Fabrik, 2008.

Boston-based composer Carson Cooman is undoubtedly one of the most prolific composers of the twenty-first century with over 800 works in his catalog. Fifty of these compositions feature the trumpet, including several commissions by Chris Gekker and a brass quintet commissioned by the Aspen Music Festival. Where All the Ladders Start, composed for C trumpet and vibraphone, was written for and is dedicated to Louis Ranger, who rendered the premiere in 2009.

Although an uncommon pairing, Cooman treats the trumpet and vibraphone as solo instruments that occasionally accompany each other. The resulting dialogue unfolds as an intimate interaction between performers while developing a wide variety of evolving emotions. An ominous cloud of thick sonorities shrouds the entire work, occasionally sprinkling glimmers of hope throughout. After a brief moment of tranquility, the intensity returns and drives toward an exhilarating conclusion.

The compositional style of Where All the Ladders Start is clear and direct with explicitly marked dynamics, phrases, and articulations that challenge the performers to demonstrate their artistic mastery. Very few questions of interpretation arise due to the precise detail in almost every measure. Cooman’s successful endeavor to explore the unique timbres of trumpet and vibraphone will entice audiences by offering a fresh palette of aural colors. (Brian Shook, assistant professor of trumpet, Lamar University)

The piece is availabe in our brass music catalog.

Many new works for Trumpet by Cooman!

Carson Cooman continues his series of works for the trumpet with several exciting new works which have just been published by Musik Fabrik Music Publishing. All of these works are available in our brass music catalog :

Moon Shards (2007) for alto saxophone, horn, trumpet, percussion, and piano
-a three movement extended work with a very dramatic atmosphere.

Pittsburgh Rhapsody (2008) for brass band was commissioned by the River City Brass Band, Denis Colwell, music director, in celebration of the 250th anniversary of the
city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The work is in a very enthusiastic "American" style which charactorizes many of Cooman's works for Brass.

Sonnets for Two Trumpets (2008) is a suite of lyrical movements. The opening movement, Song, decorates a modal melody with arabesque figurations. The second movement, Dance, bounces a syncopated melody back and forth between the players. The third movement, Chorale, is fervent and stately. The fourth movement, Estampie, is fast and energetic. The fifth movement, Prayer, is sad, yet hopeful.

Fanfare for DGF (2007) for three trumpets is a short fanfare written for for Drew Gilpin Faust on her inauguration as the 28th president of Harvard Univeristy

Nobadeer Dreaming (2008) for solo fluglehorn
-The title refers to Nobadeer, a region of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. and conceived as “open-air” music, imagining the player performing outside on the beach at night, with the music echoing off the dunes

Un regard éloigné (2008) for flugelhorn and cello which is part of Musik Fabrik's celebration of Claude Lévi-Strauss' 100th birthday. The work was inspired by Strauss' Le regard éloigné (The View from Afar) and is a brief, atmospheric work that explores the unfolding of gentle melodic cells, colored with the distinctive timbre of the flugelhorn and cello natural harmonics.

Newton Antiphonies (2008) for two or more trumpets which is written in aleatoric notation and maybe played with any number of trumpets.