Today is Bill of Rights Day!

What better way to celebrate BILL OF RIGHTS DAY (December 15) than by listening to my setting? Check out The Bill of Rights: Ten Amendments in Eight Motets it the following link on SoundCloud.

https://soundcloud.com/neelybrucemusic/sets/the-bill-of-rights-ten

This is the performance that we did when Justice Scalia was on the Wesleyan campus in March of 2012. Actually, it's edited from the best bits of both of the performances we did that afternoon. Even though we did it in honor of Justice Scalia's visit, and cleared it with his people so that he would be in attendance, he did not, in fact, attend. Rather, he went to his hotel room and rested for his lecture that evening. Or so I am told, unofficially. Officially we were informed by an official of the university, as we were waiting in the wings to go on stage (or, rather, the Memorial Chapel equivalent of "wings" and "on stage") that "Justice Scalia is unable to attend." No further explanation.

No matter. Between the two performances we had about 500 in the audience, and the whole experience was a resounding success, notwithstanding the no-show of the guest of honor!

Here is a list of all the performances of this piece. We're up to 23 now. Suggestions are in the air for a repeat performance in New Haven in 2015 and our first performance(s) in Virginia. It even looks like we are going to have a performance in Athens, Greece in 2015, and also one in Taiwan in 2016. Not to mention a performance by an excellent women's chorus (much closer to home), if I can finish up the SSAA version...

Public reading, South Congregational Church (July of 2005)
Wesleyan University, Memorial Chapel and the lobby of Olin Library (two performances,
     September 2005)

The Unitarian Meeting House, Hamden CT (2008)

Mitchell College, New London CT (2009)

The First Congregational Church of Lebanon CT (2009)

St Katharine Drexel Church, Alton NH, under the auspices of Arts on the Edge,

     Wolfeboro NH (2010)

Co-op High School, New Haven CT (2010), under the auspices of IRIS (Integrated

     Refugee and Immigrant Services), as a benefit for area refugees and immigrants

Sandisfield Arts Center, Sandisfield MA, September 17, 2011 (Constitution Day)

The Newseum, Washington DC, under the auspices of the Knight Foundation,

     December 16, 2011 (the 220th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights)

Wesleyan University, two more performances, in conjunction with the 21st Annual

     Hugo L. Black Lecture on Freedom of Expression, given in 2012 by Justice

     Antonin Scalia

Monday 25 June 2012: A reading as a part of the series of SummerSings at St. Paul

     Evangelical Lutheran Church, 56 Great Hammock Road in Old Saybrook CT

Sunday 16 September 2012 at Faneuil Hall, Boston, two performances on the eve of

     Constitution Day

Wednesday 19 September at Trinity Chapel, Trinity College in Hartford

November 15, the Tenth Amendment performed at Brown University

November 24, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, as part of the concert series at

     Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in The Bronx

Friday 6 September 2013 at Madry Temple Church, New London CT

Sunday 15 September 2013, two more performances at Faneuil Hall

Wednesday 17 September 2014 (Constitution Day) at Middlesex Community

     College in Middletown, CT

Sunday 30 November 2014, two more performances at Faneuil Hall

Twenty-three performances of a 38-minute new choral work — not bad, I think, even if it is in the style of William Billings. Now to get more conductors involved. All but three of these performances have been conducted by the composer. Thank you Suzanne Bartells and Jeff Douma — and a special shout-out to Ioanna-Vasiliki Koraki, who is seriously contemplating The Bill of Rights in Athens!

If any of you who read this know any good choral conductors, pass on the information! I think this work has a real future, but in order for that future to become present reality there have to be more conductors who do perform the piece — LOTS more of them.