Color Theory Consortium

Color Theory will be a four-movement symphonic suite for wind ensemble, approximately 20 minutes in duration. The term ‘color theory’ describes the study of how colors influence perception and emotion through their innate qualities, blends, and contrasts. My composition will be inspired by the myriad ways artists, animals, and filmmakers use color, which will inform my compositional choices related to timbre, orchestration, harmony, density, and energy. 
Instrumentation: piccolo + 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 1 Eb clarinet, 3 Bb clarinets, 1 bass clarinet, 1 contrabass clarinet, soprano sax, alto sax, tenor sax, baritone sax, 4 Bb trumpets, 4 F horns, 4 trombones, euphonium, tuba, double bass, piano, harp, timpani, 4 percussionists
I. Brilliant Brushstrokes (6:00)
inspired by the painter Beauford Delaney’s Untitled (1954), oil on raincoat fragment
II. Fluid Dynamics (5:00)
inspired by the engineer-turned-artist Kim Keever’s water tank abstractions
III. Disruptive Coloration (3:00)
inspired by camouflage in nature
IV. Ringmaster to the Rainbow (6:00)
inspired by Natalie Kalmus, Technicolor consultant 
 
While the overall formal structure of Color Theory is symphonic in scope and ambition, each movement can be performed as a standalone piece. 
The first movement, Brilliant Brushstrokes, was premiered at the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) National Conference at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX on March 27, 2025 by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Wind Ensemble (John Zastoupil, conductor). Brilliant Brushstrokes is available for standalone performances now, and all ensembles that buy into the consortium will receive the score and parts for Brilliant Brushstrokes ($275 value). 
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​​Watch a video of the premiere performance:
View a perusal score here.
Color Theory Consortium Buy-in Fee: $800
Note: Payment can be processed in the new fiscal year after July 1, 2025
  • The consortium is led by ​​John Zastoupil and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Wind Ensemble. The UT Knoxville Wind Ensemble will have the right to give the world premiere and to make the first recording.
  • Upon paying the buy-in fee, you will receive the score/parts to the first movement, Brilliant Brushstrokes [your choice of PDFs or printed copies]. 
  • The completed four-movement piece will be delivered by January 5, 2026. 
  • Performance exclusivity for consortium members will last until December 31, 2026 to allow for consortium premieres in Spring and Fall 2026. ​ 

​Information about the inspirations behind each movement:

I. Brilliant Brushstrokes

6:00
The first movement, Brilliant Brushstrokes, is inspired by an overwhelmingly colorful and bold painting that the Knoxville-born artist Beauford Delaney (1901-1979) painted on a fragment of his old raincoat when he was living in Paris in 1954. Delaney’s raincoat fragment overflows abstractly with swirls, rings, splotches, and lines of forest green, deep orange, bright yellow, fire-engine red, hazy gray, spacious white, peaceful azure, and deep ocean blue. Upon closer viewing, the seams and pockets of the cut-up raincoat are also visible, revealing that the fanciful artwork is the result of Delaney’s resourcefulness in the face of limited money and art supplies. As a fellow artist, I find Delaney’s unrelenting and restless impulse to be creative even when he lacked proper materials to be almost as inspiring as the painting itself. Although Brilliant Brushstrokes is tightly constructed around only a few melodic gestures, the music constantly cycles through changes in instrumental texture, density, harmony, and energy. Musical phrases are often cut-off abruptly with a quick down-up gesture that I view as related to the stitched seams on the raincoat. Overall, the composition uses the vast and variegated color palette of the wind ensemble to capture the inventive spirit and brilliant dynamism of Delaney’s brushstrokes, splatters, and daubs.

II. Fluid Dynamics

5:00
The second movement, Fluid Dynamics, will take inspiration from the engineer-turned-artist Kim Keever, who is known for his colorful large-scale abstractions, which he creates by pouring paint into a 200 gallon tank of water in his studio.  Keever uses his large-format digital camera to capture the resulting clouds of color as they swirl into different forms and diffuse themselves through the water. The resulting music will be slow, lyrical, blurry, mysterious, and harmonically rich and will explore ever-evolving swirls and blends of timbre combinations.

​III. Disruptive Coloration

3:00
The third movement, Disruptive Coloration, will be a playful scherzo that takes inspiration from the ways camouflage and mimicry are used in nature to dazzle and deceive. The namesake for the movement, disruptive coloration, is a camouflage strategy where contrasting patterns break up an animal's outline, making it more difficult to see and identify against a background. The music, therefore, will explore similarities in timbre among instruments, ways of hiding or masking instrumental sounds within other instruments, rapid color changes, sudden reveals, and other forms of orchestrational trickery.

IV. Ringmaster to the Rainbow

6:00
The final movement, Ringmaster to the Rainbow, is inspired by the work and artistic philosophy of Natalie Kalmus, who served as consultant on hundreds of Hollywood films in the 1930s and 1940s in her role as an executive in Technicolor’s art department. She described her role on these films as "playing ringmaster to the rainbow.” In her 1935 treatise Color Consciousness, Kalmus wrote about developing appreciation for color, grouping colors, mixing colors, separating colors, and juxtaposing colors as they relate to cinematic storytelling. Kalmus’s principle of color restraint states that “a super-abundance of color is unnatural, and has a most unpleasant effect not only upon the eye itself, but upon the mind as well. On the other hand, the complete absence of color is unnatural.” My composition will apply Kalmus’ color principles to musical timbre and orchestration. Ringmaster to the Rainbow will also contain subtle textural, motivic, and rhythmic nods to some of the films Kalmus worked on whose coloristic scores I find inspiring: The Wizard of Oz (music by Harold Arlen and Herbert Stothart), The Adventures of Robin Hood (music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold), Gone With the Wind (music by Max Steiner), and Scott of the Antarctic (music by Ralph Vaughan Williams). ​
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