Blue Lake Concert Piece, for tuba and piano

The Blue Lake Concert Piece was commissioned by the renowned Falcone Festival, a prestigious Michigan-based Euphonium and Tuba Festival and Competition honoring the legacy of the great tuba player and teacher Leonard Falcone.

For the past decade, I have conducted both the Blue Lake Arts Camp Staff Orchestra and the Concert Band, which has also allowed me to attend the Falcone Festival Competition. This outstanding organization consistently attracts exceptionally talented performers from around the world.

I have always enjoyed composing for brass instruments, particularly sonatas and concerti. Their powerful sound lends itself both to a commanding orchestral presence and to energetic accompaniments, creating a dynamic dialogue with the soloist.

My goal in composing The Blue Lake Concert Piece was to create a virtuosistic work for the soloist while also giving the piano a prominent and expressive role. The piece also has the potential to be orchestrated for either symphony orchestra or symphonic band.

Structured as a single continuous movement, the work opens with a contemplative slow section that highlights the lyrical qualities of the tuba, exploring its full range from low to high. A fast section follows, set in a foundational 7/8 meter that introduces rhythmic instability through frequent meter changes. This leads into a more relaxed middle section in steady time, where the tuba presents a new expressive melody later echoed by the piano—one of the most memorable motifs of the piece. The work culminates in a dramatic recapitulation of the fast rhythmic section and closes powerfully as the piano reprises the expressive theme, now enriched with new melodic embellishments in the tuba.

This piece is dedicated to the memory of Fritz Stansell, founder of the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, whose visionary leadership created an internationally recognized arts center that has made music and the arts an essential part of young people’s lives.

(Salvador Brotons)