“Cumulonimbus: The King of Clouds”, by Jenni Brandon, was performed at ClarinetFest 2022 on Sunday, July 3, 2022 by Tori Venske, clarinet and Ekaterina Tangarova, piano. The concert was titled Rising Artist Preprofessional Showcase.

ClarinetFest® 2022 took place in Reno/Lake Tahoe, Nevada, USA, June 29-July 3, 2022. The ClarinetFest® 2022 program centered around the theme of Connecting People, Ideas and Cultures. The conference also featured performances by the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra as well as emerging and established artists in solo and ensemble settings.

“Cumulonimbus: The King of Clouds” for B-flat clarinet and piano begins ominously as a storm approaches and then moves into crashing clusters and the fast fury that a storm like this can bring. The clarinet leaps like hail and lightning, and the piano boldly grows bigger as the storm rages. I try to tell the story of this cloud much in the way that the book describes the cloud, including that “…it can lead to untold loss of life and damage to property. It has also been known to frighten little children with its thunder.”

I had the pleasure to write this work for Marianne Breneman and Philip Amalong of Conundrum, a Cincinnati-based new music ensemble. They premiered the work in Los Angeles on November 12, 2011 at Occidental College during a Synchromy concert.

“Cumulonimbus: The King of Clouds” for B-flat clarinet and piano is available from Jenni’s website at this link Cumulonimbus: The King of Clouds – for B-flat clarinet and Piano (jennibrandon.com)