STEPHEN MELILLO, Composer STORMWORKS

Thoughts on Death to Moby Dick, a Love Story.   “Just another hill, Isaac.  Just another damned hill!”

The echoey sounds of stretching and cracking ice filled the inlet.  The surround had become an arena, an eternal, unearthly battleground.  The white whale broke the surface slowly.  Inching forward, it broke the ice ahead of it, sending mountainous shards into the starry night.   
Carney clutched his ATK.  He spun to Isaac standing at Carney’s right. “Just another hill, Isaac.  Just another damned hill!”…

In December of 2011, while doing some Christmas shopping, I saw a man wearing a WWII Veterans cap. Over the years, I seem to have acquired a homing-beacon to such Men and Women. I feel an instant duty to put aside all else and make every effort to “accidentally” bump into them.

Our Veteran was a soon-to-be 92-year-old Pearl Harbor Survivor. As always, I had to meet him and shake his hand. Talk to him. Let him know that a now 70-year-old sacrifice was still immeasurably appreciated, and perpetually alive…

If you’ve ever seen the movie, RUDY… (with an excellent score by Jerry Goldsmith!) … you will see something of the “Psychology of Success” in action. As Henry Hartman said: “Success always comes when preparation meets opportunity.” 

Is that True?  Always? Let’s find out.

What does it mean to be “prepared?”

By now, I’m sure that most of you have heard about the 10,000-hour rule. What do Mozart, Bill Gates, and the best of professional athletes have in common?  Time.  By putting in a minimum, but required…

We are tuned to believe that “failure” is something to be avoided, when quite the contrary, failure is a target point.  Warning… we are about to redefine “failure” in ways that exceed the normal usage of the word. 

Let’s look at it the way scientists do.

“If you want to succeed, double your failure rate.”  Thomas J. Watson

Every day, I take my kids down to the P.O.E.T.  (the Place of Eternal Training) It is a little pier by the waters of the James River.  There we can stretch and work-out…

The Only Thing to Fear…

As it reads in a recent STORMWORKS Score:  “STORMWORKS is a Life-lesson in “positive obsession,” the rigorous regard for History and its Heroes, the pursuit of transcendent Love despite the storms of the world and an unwavering belief in the Brotherhood of Man.”

I once created a life-long class of students by posting 4X5 fliers… on the bottom of garbage cans in the remote recesses of Boston city streets.  Whoever found those “most-unlikely-to-be-noticed” ads and responded would…

19 SEP 1945 is the 74th Anniversary of President Truman awarding General Jonathan Wainwright, the Medal of Honor.

Citation: Distinguished himself by intrepid and determined leadership against greatly superior enemy forces. At the repeated risk of life above and beyond the call of duty in his position, he frequented the firing line of his troops where his presence provided the example and incentive that helped make the gallant efforts of these men possible. The final stand on beleaguered Corregidor, for…

Dedicated to "SSIM" and a much larger Stoy, that one day, must be told.
This article appeared in the June 2019 Issue of "The Journal of the Association of Concert Bands".


“Never Forgotten” has been played around the world.  People like it.  In every language, people ask, “What’s it about?”

As a high school director during the 80s and 90s, I’d get to school early and challenge myself to write the warm-up for that day. This eventually led to the Function Chorales™, an important topic for another article, and…

29 June 2017
On the Birthday of Bernard Herrmann


This 11:26 film will compress your Music education into questions and perhaps answers.  Click here for STORMSummate.

Every so often, I hear from fellow Music-makers who have played since the 4th grade.  They have experienced much, learned much, and teach much.  But let’s be objective rather than subjective, locked into any one school of thought.  Is there a better way?

It’s common to think that the number of years that you’ve been doing something would have…

The Eve of 6 May 2017
Gramps Nicky’s Birthday
and the New Saint Dominic Savio Feast-day


Dear Family and Friends,

You know how every once in a while, a “scene” will pop into your head for no reason at all?  Not sure what triggers it, but you suddenly remember a specific. often obscure moment, that until you saw it again, had you convinced it was wiped from your Memory?  

Well, I call these “Timestorms” and for whatever reason it might be, this morning, looking out at a rain-soaked street from my bed, I saw a…

3 May 2017, the 37th anniversary of Only for Now, premiered at M.I.T.

In any activity, uncontrolled fear can get the better of us.  At best we default to our level of training.  In an honor band setting, where only hours of learning and rehearsal have taken many to new ideas, that means that much of the fresh experience will be under the fire of pressures brought on by the audience, the lights, the seemingly different temperatures, etc.

On 3 May 1980, a 9-movement work was premiered at M.I.T.  It was…