Waschka Trumpet Concerto in Spotlight

A trumpet concerto by NC State composer Rodney Waschka will be featured on an upcoming CD from the London Schubert Players Chamber Orchestra. The orchestra gave the premiere performance of “Winter Concerto” this summer in London, featuring trumpet soloist Huw Morgan.

Waschka composed the concerto for trumpet, piano and strings with grant support from the European Commission. He created the piece in 2009 using computer programming procedures known as genetic algorithms. The work is in three movements and makes use of the Romanian folk song “Jiana” as transcribed by Lyuben Dossev. He divided the folksong into three parts, using each in a movement of the concerto.

An internationally recognized expert in computer music, Waschka wrote the chapter on composing with genetic algorithms for the recent book, Evolutionary Computer Music, published by Springer.