Norfolk resident premiers new work

By Lloyd Garrison

Since taking over leadership of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in 2004, Paul Hawkshaw and his staff have gone out of their way to forge closer ties to the community. Especially noteworthy was commissioning Norfolk composer Kim Scharnberg to premier a new work in the Music Shed on July 12, the day of the open house at which all events are admission-free.
Scharnberg’s lively composition is officially titled “Blackberry River Stomp.”  In style and content, it reflects the veteran composer’s long experience orchestrating numerous hit Broadway musicals and feature films.

“It’s a jazzy, upbeat piece written for this year’s resident student brass quintet,” says Sharnberg. “As most locals know, the Blackberry River used to be a “working” river powering the mills along side it. Now it’s more of a recreational river. I saw it being stocked with fish recently. I’ve always admired artists of different disciplines who are able to incorporate their surroundings into their work, and that’s what I’m trying to do with this.”

It has been an especially busy year for Scharnberg trying to keep up with a string of other new commissions. He premiered a new work at the International Trumpet Guild Conference in May that was ordered up by the Howard Hanson Institute for American Music at the Eastman School of Music. Another commission was written for his older brother Bill, the principal French horn player for the Dallas Opera and Ballet orchestras. It will be performed at the International Horn Symposium in Switzerland in July.

Photo by Sonia Zinke.