Music Chair's Serenade Performed by the New England Conservatory of Music

A composition written 12 years ago by Music Department Chair Michael Weinstein, “Serenade for 12 Instruments,” has continued to be a popular piece performed by the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) during the holiday season.

On December 9, Michael’s piece will be performed by the NEC Wind Ensemble during a free and open to the public performance in NEC's Brown Hall, located at 290 Huntington Avenue, Boston. After attending several dress rehearsals and providing feedback to student conductor, Boyang Yu of China, Michael looks forward to being in the audience for pure enjoyment.

Written for the 70th birthday of Frank L. Battisti, Michael's former wind ensemble conductor at NEC, Michael describes his piece as “vaguely sounding like music,” a composition of three movements for a small chamber ensemble. Due to his love of 19th Century composer Antonin Dvorak, Michael composed his serenade using the same instrumentation as one by Dvorak: two oboes, two clarinets, three horns, three bassoons, a cello and a double bass.

“I love the Dvorak piece,” shared Michael. “It’s one of the first pieces I played that really made me love chamber music. It’s an odd instrumentation, so when I composed mine, I thought it would be fun to use the same.”

The NEC asked Michael to compose “Serenade for 12 Instruments,” published by Boosey and Hawkes, in Battisti’s honor, and ever since, the NEC has chosen to perform it every couple of years. It’s always exciting for Michael when the program includes both his piece, along with Dvorak’s.

Michael uses his serenade routinely as a teaching tool in his Advanced Music Theory classes.

“This is a great example of the composition process,” he said. “I can show the original sketched score, the in-between one, and then the published version. It’s been very useful!”

More information on the December 9 event, click here.