“Composer Drew Hemenger has multiple reasons to be jubilant,” writes Brett Turner in Wednesday’s (2/28) Dayton Daily News (Ohio). “The former Yellow Springs resident will return to the area that nurtured his music skills when the Springfield Symphony Orchestra takes on one of his compositions during its MasterWorks III concert on March 24 at the Clark State Performing Arts Center. Hemenger’s ‘Exultations’ will lead off the concert, which will feature a program of all-American composers including George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. For Hemenger, a 1987 Yellow Springs High School graduate, it’s a chance to showcase a little-performed work he created while in graduate school in the mid 1990s…. Springfield Symphony Orchestra conductor and music director Peter Stafford Wilson has wanted to showcase Hemenger’s work for some time…. Yellow Springs’ orchestral program helped develop Hemenger’s brass skills and he also joined the Dayton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra…. Hemenger also became interested in percussion and started writing… He’s written pieces for groups to play in Yellow Springs’ Chamber Music series and another for a string group, and even for pianists Pascal and Ami Roge, who just performed with the Springfield Symphony. ‘I would love to do more in the area,’ he said.”
Posted March 1, 2018
Photo of composer Drew Hemenger by Christopher Duff
