Some unexpected honors are bestowed on my composition China Tree – Based on The Grass Harp by Truman Capote.
Firstly, by Stuart Noel Ph.D. – Professor of English at Georgia State University – who has chosen the sheet music to be published in his «Studies in the Works and Life of Truman Capote» – Edited Collection of Selected Papers for Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Secondly – and not least to celebrate the event mentioned above – I have got the opportunity to perform my China Tree on its home turf, so to speak:
Monroeville, Alabama, is the place where both Truman Capote (Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Grass Harp, In Cold Blood…) and Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman…) spent part of their youth, became friends and may have been inspired to some of their great literary work.
The title of my piece being an allusion to the place in the tree house where Dolly, Catherine, Collin and Judge Cool withdrew from a society’s lack of appreciation, «China Tree» is a musical essay on some of the novel’s characters and ideas, if you will.
By courtesy of the Monroe County Museum, I will now be playing a concert in the very courtroom that has inspired many a scene in «To Kill a Mockingbird», in the town where the tree house and the wispering grass may still be found:
- Thursday, October 19th, 5 pm CDT, The Old Courthouse Museum, Monroeville AL
Find out about all shows on my USA Tour 2023 here.
