Lift Where You Stand (solo piano)

This intermediate solo piano work was jointly commissioned by Utah Music Teachers Association and Music Teachers National Association in 2025. It was premiered on October 24, 2025 in Lehi, Utah. The following video features Tanner Jorden.    ABOUT THE PIECEWriting an intermediate piano piece has been a happy challenge because it has reminded me of when I was a young (and intermittently diligent) piano student. I thought of young Andrew as I wrote. What would I have loved to play back then? What do I wish I would have known or what would I tell my younger self?  Musically, the three short movements of this piece simply explore material I think young Andrew would have enjoyed playing.  The first movement is based on bluesy canon. We hear the theme first in octaves, in both hands, and then in canon. If it had a key signature, it would have one sharp and one flat—a sound called the "acoustic scale," which is a concept I wish I had encountered much earlier, and which Bartók introduce