Just about a year ago, I commissioned a piece of music to be created.

After having used John M. Meehan as an arranger and composer for marching band, I asked if he would be interested in composing a commissioned work for the award-winning Leigh High School Wind Ensemble. John thought this was a great idea, so we got to work.

We started with John's thematic idea, which was the mythological love story of Scylla and Glaucus. I looked on the Internet and found out more about the tale and even pictures that illustrated the story. We worked together to come up with the title, 'Circe's Curse'.

John asked for the instrumentation of my group, and I added the individual strengths and weaknesses of the sections and players. For example, I had a large and talented percussion section, including a top notch pianist, that I wanted to feature.

The first draft arrived, and the band gave it a reading. We immediately fell in love with the passionate nature of the piece, as well as the intricate detailing of the rhythms and how the parts were woven together.

We gave John feedback, and he continued to refine the piece. When we had a near-final draft, John came to town and sat in for rehearsals and final tuning of "our" piece. He returned to his studio and very shortly gave us the final draft for our World Premier.

Working with John was a pleasure, and the end result was spectacular. Being on stage performing a piece in its first-ever performance was a thrill that the entire ensemble will remember for the rest of their lives.

Now the piece is for sale on John's website jksmusic.com. There is also a fairly bad audio sample of my group playing Circe's Curse in rehearsal. I really need to get him a better recording!