Winner of the 2024 Dallas Winds Brass Fanfare Competition

This piece gets its name from the name of the optical phenomenon that occurs when the sun is just below the horizon and its light is reflected off of crystalline particles or precipitation in the atmosphere and onto clouds or, more spectacularly, mountains. The result is a glow of brilliant reds, oranges, and pinks that illuminate snow-covered mountains.

As a composer, I love creating pieces based on naturalistic concepts, especially the beauty of light and the grandeur of mountains, so discovering this phenomenon with a friend was truly exciting. The piece itself is designed to fulfil the two different aspects of alpenglow, the structure and reflection of melodic motifs as the light and the richness of sound as the majestic view of the mountains.