Selected
Compositions
(click a title for detailed information)
Theme and Variations on a Slavic Folk Song (2008)
Pinellazartian
Overture (2008)
Triple Concerto for Violin, Bass and Bassoon
with String Orchestra (2007)
Water Works – Aqua Rising (1999)
A Journey in Orchestration (1997)
(click a title for detailed information)
Sextet for Piano and Wind Quintet (2007)
Triple Concerto (chamber version 2007)
Sextet for Winds and Bass (2005)
Sonata for Cello and Piano (2005)
Remembrance Upon a
Midnight Hour (1997)
Rhapsody for Flute and Bassoon (1995)
Dark Song of a Nomadic Tribe (1994)
Trio for Organ, Clarinet and Bassoon (1990)
WIND ENSEMBLE~BAND
(click a title for detailed information)
12 July 2008
Center for the Arts, Crested
Butte, Colorado
Crested Butte Music
Festival/Charles Olivieri-Munroe
22*22 2200 Timp, Strings
Duration
11 minutes
Program
Notes
Theme and Variations on a
Slavic Folk Song was inspired by a Youtube clip of an
old Slavic folksong as performed by the Fathers of the Toronto Oratory. It is scored for pairs of flutes, clarinets,
bassoons, horns and trumpets, oboe, English horn, timpani and strings. The work seeks to showcase all the
instruments in the score through a set of seven variations that are varied not
only in melodic invention, but harmonization and meter as well. The composition centers itself on the key of
the opening theme in F-major, and there is the obligatory variation in the
relative key of d-minor (Variation IV). This work was great fun to write, and
Mark would like to thank Alexander Scheirle and the
Crested Butte Music Festival for commissioning the piece and giving the world
premiere.
Theme: Moderato
Variation I: L’istesso tempo
Variation II: Piu allegro
Variation III: Molto adagio
Variation IV: Poco piu mosso
Variation V: Allegro vivace
Variation VI: Pesante comedia
Variation VII & Coda: Molto
allegro
4 May 2008
Ruth Eckerd Hall,
Clearwater, Florida
The Pinellas Youth
Symphony/Susan Robinson
3*222 4331 Timp + 2,
Strings
Duration
4 ½ minutes
Program
Notes
Commissioned by the Pinellas
Youth Symphony in honor of their 50th Anniversary Season. The work is partially inspired by three works
of Mozart: Violin Concerto in G-Major,
Bassoon Concerto, and the Overture to the Marriage of Figaro; thus, the title,
“Pinellazartian”.
The main motif of the work begins with two declamatory notes of the same
pitch, as do both the Violin Concerto in G-Major and the Bassoon Concerto.
Allegro (hear audio excerpt)
Adagio
affettuoso (hear audio excerpt)
Allegro molto (hear audio excerpt)
17 April 2007
Palladium Theater, St.
Petersburg, Florida
Musicians Out
of the Box with guests, Aaron White and Mark Sforzini
See
Review of Premiere Performance
Orchestral Version: Violin,
Bass and Bassoon Soloists with String Orchestra
Chamber Version: Violin, Bass and Bassoon Soloists with
additional Violin, Viola and Cello accompaniment
Duration
24 ½ minutes
Program
Notes
Triple Concerto was commission
by the Palladium Theater to be part of the 2007 Encore Series. Encore
Sponsors, Dar Webb and
Clint Page, commissioned six Tampa Bay area composers to each compose a work
inspired
by one of J. S. Bach’s Six Bradenburg Concerti. As April 17 was the fifth concert in the six
concert
series,
Sforzini was “assigned” Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 which features three
solo instruments: violin,
flute
and harpsichord. In Sforzini’s
work, the three solo instruments often play alone in the solo episodes, with
the
orchestral
strings joining for the tutti or ritornello
passages. The work has been scored for
both orchestral strings and
chamber
strings (one on a part). The soloists for
the premiere performance were Sean O’Neil, Violin; Aaron White, Bass;
and
Mark Sforzini, Bassoon with the remaining members of Musicians Out of the Box rendering
the tutti strings.
26 October 2006
Ruth Eckerd Hall,
Clearwater, Florida
The Florida
Orchestra/Stefan Sanderling
0222 2000
pairs
of oboes, clarinets, bassoons and horns
2 ½ minutes
Program
Notes
Written at
the request of Florida Orchestra Music Director Stefan Sanderling.
Mahaffey
Theater, St. Petersburg, Florida
The
Florida Orchestra/Stefan Sanderling
Purchase
complete premiere performance or individual movements
Adagio (hear audio excerpt)
Andante
Mosso (hear audio excerpt)
Allegro;
Ländler moderato; Allegro (hear audio excerpt)
29 January 2008
Music Center at St.
Petersburg College
Palladium Encore Series
Pascal Rogè, Piano; Catherine Landmeyer,
Flute; Lane Lederer, Oboe;
Brian Moorhead,
Clarinet; Mark Sforzini, Bassoon; James Wilson, Horn
Piano, Flute, Oboe,
Clarinet, Bassoon and Horn
22 ½ minutes
Commissioned by Nancy J. Preis and Marilyn Preis Hoyt in
honor of their
mother,
Gladys M. Preis, 1909 – 2007.
Lively (hear
audio)
Scherzo (hear audio
excerpt)
Meditation (hear
audio)
Finale
Promenade (hear
audio of exposition)
Nostalgie (hear
audio of movement)
Cirque
(hear
audio of movement)
Allegro marziale (hear audio of exposition)
Mazurka (hear audio)
Adagio lamentoso (hear
audio)
Finale
Instrumentation
Duration
Program
Notes
Andante Cantabile (hear audio)
Scherzetto:
Moderato (hear audio)
Finale: Allegro Appassionata (hear audio)
Performed in 2003 also
at the Tampa Theatre, and for the Inaugural Performance for the Murray Studio
Theater at
Ruth
Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, Florida.
Octet was subsequently performed on the Florida Orchestra Masterworks
Series in April 2004 and at the
Flute, Oboe, Clarinet,
and Bassoon
1997
7 minutes
Two Movements: Song of the Prairie and Atlantic City Rock
Click here to purchase recording.
Premiere
Performance (hear
audio)
June 1995 at the 25th
Anniversary International Double Reed Society Convention
Catherine Wendtland-Landmeyer, flute; Mark Sforzini, bassoon
Instrumentation
Flute and Bassoon
Duration
12 minutes
1994
Flute,
Oboe, Clarinet, Horn and Bassoon
14
minutes
1990
Organ,
Clarinet and Bassoon
11
minutes
Premiere
Performance (hear audio)
17 June 2006
Palladium Theater, St.
Petersburg, Florida
FloriMezzo
Wind Ensemble/Mark Sforzini
Flute 1, 2, Piccolo,
Oboe, English Horn, Bassoon 1, 2, Clarinet 1, 2, 3,
Bass Clarinet, Alto Sax 1, 2, Tenor Sax, Baritone Sax
Horn 1, 2, 3, 4 Trumpet
1,2, 3, Trombone 1, 2, Bass Trombone, Tuba
Timpani and Percussion
5 minutes
Based on the Meditation
movement from Sextet for Winds and Bass (2005)