Nov 10, 2018
After a full year of preparation, the Biola Symphonic Winds (Bob Feller, conductor) performed a 90-minute concert consisting solely of Maffe's original music. The event was the first of its kind at the 110-year-old school, as there had never been a large ensemble concert with the entirety of its music by a student composer to that point.
Among some of Maffe's crowd favorites ("Into the West," "Fanfare for the Patriot," "Alaska: Crest of the Hinterland," etc.), the concert also featured the world premiere of Maffe's musical epic, The Artisan, commissioned by the Biola Conservatory of Music. The piece was described by Maffe as a musical self-portrait which captured the machine-like work of being a composer for hire and the intimate beauty of furthering oneself and the art through composition. The Artisan consists of two movements—the first, bold and full of the grandeur of its featured instrument, the pipe organ (Ryanne McLaren); and the second, soft and passionate featuring the solo violin (Mikaela Borg).
At the end of the concert, Maffe conducted, "Mort's March," the main theme from the 2017 short film, Mort. (directed by Kianna Bliven).