David Eastmond: Affirmation and Ballade
David was a clarinet student on mine at the University of Toronto in my earlier days, and has now become a very successful published composer of band works for US firms. He wrote this as a student exercise for an Orchestration class with professor John Hawkins, and manages to both explore the extremes of range of the instrument in the opening section, as well as introduce a beautiful singing melody in the second part.
Owen Maughan Solo for Clarinet
Written some 30 years after David's piece in 2024, this had a similar genesis, coming from the pen of a student in Professor Barbara Assiginaak's composition class at Wilfred Laurier University. Again this young composer found a great balance of technical challenge to singing lyricism. Recorded in a lovely church while adjudicating in Vancouver Canada.