"A bright voice to listen to amid America's gray compositional landscape. He has something to say, and he says it directly and in a way very much his own."
-John Ardoin, Dallas Morning News
"…one of the cleverest composers writing, and certainly one of our master colorists."
-Piano & Keyboard
"…suave competence… he writes attractive music with a rich palette of colors, commanding technique — and a edge."
-James Roos, Miami Herald
for Solo Piano
"…fascinating music… I would like to hear it again, perhaps in a recording with extended program notes that would allow repeated exploration of its narrative and philosophical depths."
-John McLellan, Washington Post
Valediction for Large Orchestra
"It was a pleasure to encounter Mr. Welcher's music again, and his new piece, Bright Wings, is subtitled "Valediction for Large Orchestra."… The "Valediction" of the subtitle is a farewell to someone in his life who recently died. Yet there is nothing mournful in any sense in the music. Indeed, it seems, on the whole, downright celebratory, and perhaps it was meant as a paean for living. It is crafted for a very large orchestra, yet Mr. Welcher's forces are deployed with transparency and often great delicacy… I can easily imagine it being a boon to orchestras in need of a new, upbeat piece to open a concert… easily absorbable for orchestra and audience alike."
-John Ardoin, Dallas Morning News
for Bassoon and Small Orchestra
"Bassoonists are also lucky to have a new work as beautifully crafted as Welcher's as an addition to their limited solo repertory. Like his recent Flute Concerto, it is a pensive piece that expertly exploits its solo instrument to evoke atmosphere and emotion-drenched landscapes. More conservative than the Flute Concerto, and frequently elegiac in mood, it is also crafty in the ways it deploys a small group of players to create a wide range of instrumental color."
-William Mootz, Louisville Courier-Journal
for Clarinet and Orchestra
"…vividly coloured despite the modest orchestral forces. Well-managed changes of mood, encompassing jazz, dances, even rock and ragtime within a formal context, show Welcher as a master tactician capable of writing music of striking and sustained interest. His relative youth and technical facility deserve to bring him before a more international public."
-Bret Johnson, Tempo
"If there's a better Clarinet Concerto by a living composer, I don't know of it. The work is almost a catalogue of the clarinet's musical possibilities, but it is far too well constructed to come across as a mere display of clarinet timbres."
-Richard Halley, On The Air Magazine
"Welcher has fashioned a winning two-movement piece that cleverly wanders from "serious" contemporary vistas into the well-traveled land of orchestral jazz… Welcher's concerto brims with freshness, rhythmic verve and more than its share of memorable tunes."
-Marc Shulgold, Rocky Mountain News
for Flute and Orchestra
"On the basis of this work I would say that Welcher is one of the most promising American composers I have ever heard…"
-R.S. Brown, High Fidelity
for Piano and Orchestra "Shiva's Drum"
"Dan Welcher's Piano Concerto was received with thunderous enthusiasm… the concerto is a highly demanding virtuoso vehicle for both soloist and orchestra. The harmonic idiom is a stretched tonality — exotic but not alienating."
-Mike Greenberg, San Antonio Express-News
"Stylistically, Welcher's musical language has great character. It is assertively contemporary in its dissonance, but it has a good foundation of tonality."
-Charles Ward, Houston Chronicle
"It is a big, ambitious piece, some 35 minutes in length. Though its content is not romantic, its design is, for this is a concerto conceived in a full-scale, virtuoso style… what I heard was a first movement that was a riot of exotic color and bristling rhythms, a shimmering and introspective second movement and a dashing, pulsating finale."
-John Ardoin, Dallas Morning News
"…a showy, colorful, relatively dissonant work… the piece is well-constructed, serious in tone and is highlighted by quasi-oriental scales in its somber slow movement and suggestions of exuberant dance music in the closing fast movement."
-Carl Cunningham, Houston Post
for Timpani and Orchestra
"Concertos for timpani are decidedly a rarity, owing in part to the challenge of writing a work for an instrument of limited possibilities. However, Welcher overcame these difficulties and created a work that casts the timpani in a new light. From the rhythmic vitality of the opening movement to the mellow tenderness of the second and the lilting flow of the finale, Welcher's concerto is a study in lyricism."
-Edward Reichel, Deseret Morning News, October 9, 2004
"It would be hard to name a more appealing new concerto for any instrument than this one... The concerto lets the soloist show off an amazing tonal and dynamic range."
-Catherine Reese Newton, Salt Lake Tribune, October 9, 2004
for Violin and Orchestra
"…the fingerprints of the neo-classic Stravinsky are all over the opening bars, from the angularity of the solo lines to the piquant harmonies and motoric rhythmic underpinnings in the orchestra. …the craftsmanship is impeccable, especially the interweaving and dovetailing of melodic strands between the various instrumental groups. …charming work…"
-Michael Cameron, Chicago Tribune
"…it is the music's clarity, conclusion and uncluttered Stravinskian directness that leave the strongest impression. Welcher set out to write a piece that was 'ebullent, sometimes playful, and more charming than profound': judging by this superbly played and recorded performance, he certainly succeeded."
-Julian Haylock, The Strad
for Clarinet and Piano
"Dante Dances is great fun, but seriously crafted and tightly disciplined…"
-Mike Greenberg, San Antonio Express-News
"Welcher's music was full of novel twists of direction and phrase, and brushed with wit."
-James Roos, Miami Herald
Opera in Two Acts
"I'd be willing to risk money that Della's Gift will survive long after its opening night. The reasons are good and much deserved. The music is disarming in its charm and eminently singable. And as theater, Della's Gift is uncomplicated and affecting… around the 'magical children' of O. Henry's familiar story, Welcher has constructed a musical aura that evokes a bygone American era in a gently, loving way."
-John Ardoin, Dallas Morning News
Ritual Dance Scene for Orchestra
"Dervishes is cannily written so the discerning listener can have lots of fun without mystification. Welcher combines ready wit and a sense of drama in the way he plots a score."
-F. W. Woolsey, Louisville Times
"…the piece has the kind of swirling vitality the name implies; it is superbly orchestrated (with a notable but not overdone part for the bassoons) and it demonstrates conclusively for those who still may doubt it that atonal music can be downright pretty."
-Joseph McLellan, Washington Post
for Flute and Piano
"…mysterious and haunting… Pecking bird calls, brooding and ominous piano textures, two double-cadenzas, and incessant pitch repetitions combine to create a dramatic composition."
-Flute Talk
for Narrator and Orchestra
"Welcher's music has a cinematic sweep, with Hawaiian chant-tunes, Polynesian scales, and a battery of native percussion instruments lending an exotic vibrancy to his rich-textured score. All this makes for some pretty weird and wonderful effects, a veritable cornucopia of color-inflected sonorities."
-Tiedman, American Record Guide
"…a cornucopia of color-inflected sonorities that achieve a breathtaking celebratory grandeur."
-Lehman, American Record Guide
"The orchestral colors are as spectacular as a Hawaiian volcano, the musical structure is exceptionally tight, and the piece as a whole is a delight to surrender to."
-Richard Halley, On The Air Magazine
Opera in Three Scenes and an Epilogue
Paired with DELLA'S GIFT, the two operas can be presented as A STAR OVER FIFTH AVENUE
"The two operas DELLA'S GIFT and HOLY NIGHT offer us intimate examinations of that difficulty (of sustaining real love) from either side of a century's divide, in a meager fifth avenue apartment in 1905, and the same apartment, much refurbished, today... In both, the Christmas setting exposes how we sometimes need to make a statement of our love through gift or action at that time of year, how we have twisted the holiday from an occasion for offering some part of ourselves to one when we have to prove something of our love with a gift. Ultimately, both DELLA'S GIFT and HOLY NIGHT show us a way beyond that, to forgiveness and the shedding of self that allows lovers to unite. In this expression of the meaning of true love, these lovely new operas merge together; two become one."
-Robert Faires, Austin Chronicle, April 28, 2005
for Large Orchestra
"One highlight was the nine-minute Jackpot: A Celebratory Overture for Large Orchestra, written for the Philharmonic by Dan Welcher. Commissioned to commemorate the centennial, the work... does catch the fever and fervor associated with the city's favorite sport. The orchestra first suggested the anticipation of a quick win with some grand cascades gradually building to a fever pitch, some slower sections (reminiscent of those inevitable losses) and an ultimate conclusion as bright as the city itself."
-Julia Osborne, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Tuesday, September 20, 2005.
an Oratorio for Orchestra, Chorus and Speakers
"The composer has had to juggle a lot of elements, and he has done his work skillfully. He has a keen response to the emotional and pictorial qualities of the text… he knows how to write vividly and gratifyingly for the orchestra. The setting of Frost's "Riders" was galvanizing… rich in both virtuoso display and expressive content."
-Ellen Pfeifer, Boston Herald
"The 45-minute oratorio arouses as much patriotic spirit as a Sousa march at a Fourth of July fireworks display… Through the words of seven authors and poets, two Peace Corps volunteers, the Protestant Council, and Kennedy himself, Welcher has woven a musical tapestry that is rich in orchestral color and rife with musical invention."
-Michael Huebner, Austin American-Statesman
for Large Orchestra
"In its four movements the new symphony is pensive, filled with joy and delight, occasionally frightening, huge and always fascinating… It is a 20th-century piece that is the herald of the 21st century."
-Paul Sweitzer, Arizona Daily Sun
for Solo Piano
"What Welcher has done is… to create a surreal fantasy in which aural landmarks come and go… a study in bell sounds on the piano that is fully the equal of such famous bell pieces as Ravel's La vallée des cloches or Debussy's Cloches à travers les feuilles."
-Piano & Keyboard
for Violin, Clarinet and Piano
"…an essay in Apollonian-Dionysian contrasts… Love-intoxicated… brims with an interior poetry and fiery lyricism that you somehow don't expect from violin, clarinet and piano."
-James Roos, Miami Herald
"…an appealingly moody work that weaves a spell with its ever-changing washes of sound and deeply etched effects."
-John Ardoin, Dallas Morning News
"…a succinct, impressionistic piece inspired by three watercolors by Southwestern artist Georgia O'Keeffe… the music moved in gentle, almost pastel progressions, much in keeping with the watercolors done in 1917 in Canyon, Texas by the artist. Eastern elements and non-linear melodic ideas appears, but the work was easily accessible to hard-core fans of strict classical repertoire."
-Michael Pointe, Austin American-Statesman
for Clarinet and String Quartet
"…full of interesting appealing ideas, voiced with great ingenuity and skill in the five instruments and it also demonstrates that diatonic music is still a through street… The clarinet is unquestionably the leading actor, but the strings have a lot of interesting things to say. The course of the action has great variety and is enjoyably unpredictable."
-William Glackin, Sacramento Bee Final
for Mezzo-soprano, Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Cello, Piano and Percussion
"…a setting of verses by California poet Christina Hutchins… Mr. Welcher's 14-mintue setting captures the tenderness of the memories and evokes a child's playfulness in lyric music descended from Debussy and Samuel Barber."
-Scott Cantrell, Dallas News
for Medium High Voice and Piano
"these marvelous songs should take their place as staples of the American vocal literature."
-Lehman, American Record Guide
Please see reviews for DELLA'S GIFT and HOLY NIGHT.
for Orchestra
"All three movements are packed with musical ideas that pull the listener's attention from one orchestral section to the next, but with transitions that are smooth and natural… Welcher displays an ease with beautiful music in gorgeous brass ensembles, rich and consonant string passages and multitudes of solo colors."
-Richard McKinney, Honolulu Star Bulletin
Fantasy-Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra
"A refreshing tonic for winter-weary imaginations. The 24-minute work's sunny disposition shows through each of its six movements…"
-Sharon McDaniel, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
"Welcher's fantasy-like narrative, suggested by events out of Arthurian legend, is "cinematic" without ever resorting to the clichés of movie music. The orchestration is rich and evocative, its colors so vividly imagined one can almost touch them."
-John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune
"…a work tingling with a magic of its own… Light never really parts the clouds, but in the dim smoky distance and swirling dark gloom can be seen sparks of power and unnatural forces."
-David Anthony Richelieu, San Antonio Express
"a rewarding 23-minute tone poem by Dan Welcher… it describes the legendary magician Merlin and some of his exploits in a shimmering, eclectic language that encompasses leitmotifs, free dissonance and singing lyricism, all woven together in a picturesque and fully persuasive way."
-Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
for Flute and Harp
"The brightest spot came late in the program… White Mares of the Moon, a mildly avant-garde work that consists largely of minimalistic rhythmic figures overlaid with highly dramatic and expressive flute gestures."
-Timothy Vincent Clark, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Fantasy for Bassoon and String Quartet
"The haunting work is in two sections. [In] the first,…the music hang in the air suspended, ungrounded, a perfect setup for the long, almost conversational line of the bassoon… in the second part, the bassoon uses all of its range and plenty of its idiomatic turns, including staccato runs. But mainly the bassoon's line is long and languid… "This piece is a real gift to the instrument," [soloist Steven] Dibner said..."
-Harvey Steiman, San Francisco Classical Voice
for Flute, Violin, Viola and Cello
"Welcher’s Zephyrus is the real treasure here— a serious contribution to the flute and string repertoire. Zephyrus makes heavy demands on the flutist without digressing into silly theatrics."
-Payton MacDonald, American Record Guide
"The concert opened with what would prove to be its highlight, Zion, a contemporary work by Texas composer Dan Welcher. The sweeping, majestic piece -- performed exceedingly well by the symphony -- was reminiscent of the work of Aaron Copland with its brash, all-American sound."
-Chip Chandler, Amarillo Globe-News