Bradley S. Hartman

Destiny Awaits is a thrilling piece for younger orchestras. With many opportunities for tension and release, your ensemble will sound mature beyond their years. Opening with a majestic section, the suspense builds as the piece catapults forward into an energetic groove. This piece provides an opportunity to showcase each section of the ensemble. All parts will have the melody at some point in the piece!

Attending high school is not the easiest of tasks for some people, myself being one of
them. Each day, there was another task to complete, another fight to be fought, another friendship lost to a silly matter. It was easy to get swallowed up by the beast that was high school. Although I was not a string player, the orchestra teacher, Mr. Lawlor, seemed to understand me. He became a mentor through my high school years. Despite how I may have felt about myself on any given day, Mr. Lawlor had the highest level of confidence in me. He knew when I was having a rough day and would immediately call me into his office. He was a man that lived life to the fullest, and as if it were his last.

Sadly, on December 23, 2005, he did live his last day when he lost his battle to stage 4
lung cancer. I did not have the opportunity to say goodbye when he passed away, but
when the opportunity to perform in an alumni recital came up, I wrote this piece for solo piano. When I decided to arrange this piece for an instrumental ensemble, it seemed fitting that it should be arranged for strings before any other setting.

The Shark Shuffle was originally written for a beginner band that I was teaching on Long Island (NY). The title is based on the school district's mascot, the Sharks. After many successful performances of the piece, a friend who teaches beginner orchestra asked me if I could adapt it for an orchestra setting. This work uses very basic musical vocabulary- whole notes, half notes, and quarter notes for rhythms and only the first five notes of the D Major scale. Adding percussion makes this piece even more fun for the musicians and their audience.