"...suave competence... he writes attractive music with a rich palette of colors, commanding technique - and a edge."

"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."

"...these marvelous songs [Seven Songs on Poems of e.e. cummings] should take their place as staples of the American vocal literature."

"...one of the cleverest composers writing, and certainly one of our master colorists."

"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."

"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."