Reel (2016)

In 2015, I won the Eastern North American Irish Fiddle Competition and qualified to compete at the All-Ireland Fiddle Competition in Sligo, Ireland. I ran a crowd-funding campaign online to help make the trip possible, and one of the perks of donating was receiving a tune composed by yours truly. This is one of the eight tunes I was commissioned to write.

This tune was written for Amy Bogard and her son, Jack, whom I first met and got to know at the Swannanoa Gathering Celtic Week in North Carolina. Amy is a great flute player, and is also an incredibly talented visual artist (check out her work at www.amybogard.com). Jack, who is around my age, is a fantastic fiddler/violinist equally at ease playing Irish music, classical concertos, or improvising jazz solos. I fondly remember many late-night jam sessions with him at Swannanoa. Jack is now the concertmaster of the Evansville Philharmonic in Evansville, Indiana.

RECORDED ON: Kyle Burghout: The Prism Within, Track 9 (2017)