2023 The American Prize ERNST BACON MEMORIAL AWARD for the PERFORMANCE of AMERICAN MUSIC, community ensemble division – 3rd Place:
Ulysses James, conductor, Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic, Alexandria VA
Score available through Subito Music Distribution.
Re-Release 2016: Dream Vapors – selected works for orchestra, Navona Records
Original Release 2008: Masterworks of the New Era, Volume 12 – ERMMedia, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Robert Ian Winstin, Conductor
Program note: Shredding Glass began as an immediate cathartic response to the events and images of September 11, 2001. It is a reverential work of compassion and spiritual healing that was composed in the shadow of 9/11. To me this piece represents the essence of an emotional remembrance – how time and timelessness unfolded while coping with the realization, heartbreak and impact of this catastrophic event. I believe the music is ultimately about transcendence. –RW
Shredding Glass – single
From the title alone, one would expect Rain Worthington’s Shredding Glass, performed by the Czech Philharmonic, to be a work of brutal nature, especially when put in the context of its original inspiration: the events of 9/11. But Worthington’s piece provides the listener instead with exquisite disintegration, mere glass filaments casting light in all directions, with an undercurrent of unresolved apprehension. …The texture is transparent but luminous, reminiscent perhaps of the late works of Mahler.”
— Scott Locke ((Journal of International Alliance of Women in Music)
(original release: Masterworks of the New Era, Volume Twelve ERM-6827)