The Bill of Rights: Ten Amendments in Eight Motets

The Bill of Rights set to music is composer Neely Bruce’s response to the changing political climate. Literally giving voice to the masses, Neely conducts local choirs, choral groups, and musicians in a work that creates an awe-inspiring awareness of the text written by our Founding Fathers.

Listening to the evening news will never be the same as the relevancy of our nation’s vows become renewed after a profound and impactful community experience.  Neely Bruce’s The Bill of Rights inspires singers and listeners alike to connect to today’s news as history in the making.

A moderated post-concert discussion is available with your local Constitutional expert or with special guest lecturer Meg Mott, a professor of political theory at Marlboro College (VT) and host of The Putney Public Library’s popular series, Debating our Rights. Other educational and community engagement activities are available.

Fall in New England for Chamber Orchestra

Fall in New England was commissioned by the Hop River Chamber Music Series as a companion piece to Aaron Copland’s famous, Pulitzer Prize-winning composition Appalachian Spring. Fall in New England can be performed with Appalachian Spring to create a full evening or paired with other selections from Neely’s repertoire. 

SHORT STORIES AT THE PIANO

Sharing funny stories and virtuoso musical examples, Neely Bruce brings to life some of your favorite as well as “misunderstood” composers. Is all of Ives music dissonant? Was Mozart always happy? What did Beethoven hear? Neely Bruce gives musical insights and goes behind the music’s program notes, to bring some of these larger than life personalities down to earth.

MUSEUM CONCERTS

Museum Concerts include original compositions and compositions from composers, known and unknown, that offer a unique perspective or commentary on a current museum exhibit. For example, Neely paired the works of composer Anthony Philip Heinrich, considered the Beethoven of America, with the Hudson Valley Painters Collective, where Neely showed how colors of the music paralleled the visual approach taken by this school of painting. Concerts are tailored to support the exhibits and collections offered at the museum.

RESIDENCY OPTIONS

Residency options include lectures on Charles Ives, John Cage and other American composers, Music of the 18th & 19th Centuries, masterclasses for composers, pianists, choral ensembles, conducting for orchestra and conducting for choral ensembles. Engagement activities can also be tailored to the needs of the presenting organization.