Music

I am interested in a wide variety of music, although my own tends towards modernism. I grew up on jazz and pop music of the 1970s, but was blown away by Stravinsky, Bartok, Shostakovich, Lutoslawski, and Penderecki while in college. I haven't looked back since. You might hear all of them in my music, as well as others, especially if you listen to my fourth symphony, which I just finished the first draft. It's posted on my YouTube channel, but I'm still tinkering with it. I'll post a link when I'm totally happy with it.

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Stephen Ferre replied to Stephen Ferre's discussion Interludes
"I haven't looked at them seriously. My upgrade has sent me way over budget, and they would probably mean venturing into DAW-land. The ones I have are all old versions, so that would mean more expenditure and lots of time learning how to use it…"
Feb 13
Stephen Ferre replied to Stephen Ferre's discussion Interludes
"I built my own desktop, and the upgrade was more like $1200. I probably could have built the whole computer for about $1400, but I was able to save a few things. A laptop that would run it would be prohibitively expensive.
I've been working on a…"
Feb 13
Stephen Ferre replied to Stephen Ferre's discussion Interludes
"I think they kept the solo strings for the Pro version to make more people switch up to it. That was what swayed me. Unfortunately, you need monster hardware to run it. I could barely use it until I gave my computer a major upgrade. I still can't…"
Feb 13
Mike Hewer and Stephen Ferre are now friends
Feb 12
Stephen Ferre replied to Kristofer Emerig's discussion Accept or decline membership?
"I think it is important that we do. Long ago I ran a Ning forum (when it was free), and I found that spammers were a never-ending battle. I had a whole series of questions, but no approval process, and I kept getting answers of "." or "0", which got…"
Feb 11
Stephen Ferre replied to Stephen Ferre's discussion Interludes
"He is apparently working on it, according to the last email he sent me."
Feb 11
Stephen Ferre replied to Stephen Ferre's discussion Interludes
"Wallender says that pitch-bend glissandi isn't the way to go. They are looking for another solution for NPPE. NP4's native solution sounds better. (I can't remember what they called it.) One of my pieces has a really wide glissando, and it just…"
Feb 11
Stephen Ferre replied to Kristofer Emerig's discussion Accept or decline membership?
"I have seen her profile on other NING forums. One is blank, another promotes hcg injections = spammer."
Feb 11
Stephen Ferre replied to Stephen Ferre's discussion Interludes
"Wow, Mike. Thanks for your comments. Concerning the mock-up, one of the things that I did while composing this piece was write to the strengths of the NP/BBCSO set up. There are some things that don't sound well, and I'm trying to work out solutions…"
Feb 11
Stephen Ferre and Ronald Morris are now friends
Feb 5
Stephen Ferre replied to Kristofer Emerig's discussion I cannot read this small font. Is there a way to make it bigger? How?
"Actually, it appears that you can onl change your own page. It isn't site wide."
Feb 4
Stephen Ferre replied to Kristofer Emerig's discussion I cannot read this small font. Is there a way to make it bigger? How?
"Members whould be made aware that they have a certain amount of control of the theme of the site. I find the light blue links hard to read on a gray background, so I've turned them yellow. It seems that not all of them have changed, but many have.…"
Feb 4
Stephen Ferre replied to Stephen Ferre's discussion Interludes
"Pärt could be the topic of another discussion entirely."
Jan 30
Stephen Ferre replied to Stephen Ferre's discussion Interludes
"I think that Hans would agree with me, actually. (I know him.) I set the parts for Let Me Tell You, and did some cleanup work on the score for him. It's a great piece His opera The Snow Queen is, I think, even better. LMTY could be the most…"
Jan 30
Stephen Ferre posted a discussion
I've been mentioning in another discussion that I went through a period during the pandemic, writing what I called postcards, usually pieces that fit on a half a sheet of paper, then posting scrolling videos on Facebook. During that time, I was…
Jan 29
Stephen Ferre replied to Stephen Ferre's discussion Interludes
"Well, it is popular relative to Voyage, although Voyage is possibly performed more since it is shorter. (There are two performances of Sym. No. 2 in February, by the San Francisco Symphony.) Nørgård is probably the most important living composer in…"
Jan 29
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Bio

I'm a composer of instrumental music, including 4 symphonies, a suite of dwarf planet miniatures (Far From the Fading Light), concertos for piano, violin, flute, and euphonium, 5 string quartets (the fifth won 1st Prize, Robert Avalon International Competition for Composers 2021), as well as a host of chamber music.

I'm am transitioning from teaching at CCM in Cincinnati toward full-time freelancing as a music engraver/typesetter, which I have done since the early 1990s (full time until 2012, when I returned to teaching). My octet, Labyrinth, has been recorded and should be (finally) released this spring, if not before. The BIS recording of my reorchestration of Per Nørgård's Helle Nacht (Violin Concerto No. 1) was critically acclaimed, although I wasn't credited on the recording, and the Grammophone reviewer thought the arrangement was done by the composer:

Herresthal plays here the reduction for chamber orchestra Nørgård made at his suggestion in 2002, which gives the music an extra transparency that proves even more beguiling than the original, which is accordingly not directly comparable.