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about the composition 

Birmingham (2006), for orchestra and (optional) narrator, is dedicated to the work and memory of Civil Rights Movement leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The work incorporates text from Dr. King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” written during his April 1963 civil disobedience campaign in Birmingham, Alabama.

Dr. King, one of thousands jailed during the Birmingham campaign, wrote the letter in response to a published statement by eight Alabama clergymen who called his demonstrations “unwise and untimely” and “extremist.” It was hastily scrawled in the margins of a newspaper and other sheets of paper provided to Dr. King while he was confined in a Birmingham city jail cell.

Birmingham, composed by Carl Schroeder (b. 1982) of Minneapolis, MN with text by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., has an approximate performance time of 6 1/2 minutes. Permission to use excerpts from Dr. King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" was generously granted by Intellectual Properties Management, of Atlanta, Georgia, as exclusive licensor of the King Estate.

about the composer

Carl Schroeder (b. 1982) of Minneapolis, Minnesota, a graduate of St. Olaf College, writes music for concert band, orchestra, choir, chamber ensembles and piano that often draws inspiration from American history and current events. His large ensemble works have been performed by more than 30 concert bands, orchestras and choirs, including the Air Force Band of Mid-America and Ukraine's Chamber Choir Kyiv.

Schroeder has studied composition primarily with Timothy Mahr and Peter Hamlin, and has also taken lessons with composers Mark Camphouse, Donald Grantham and Dana Wilson. In 2001, he was named "Composer with Most Potential" by the Minnesota Music Educators Association, and in 2004 he was one of three under-25 American composers chosen to participate in the National Band Association’s Young Composer Mentor Project. In 2006 his choral work Two December Carols received the ERM Media Masterworks Prize. He composed Birmingham during the spring of 2006, based on a piano score composed in January 2006.

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more on Birmingham

CONCERT PERFORMANCES orchestra version unless otherwise noted
Jan. 13, 2006: Helen Schroeder, Carl Schroeder - Northfield, MN premiere (piano/spoken voice arrangement)
Jan. 15, 2006: Carsten Slostad, Carl Schroeder - St. Louis Park, MN (piano/spoken voice arrangement)
April 30, 2006: Carsten Slostad, Carl Schroeder - St. Louis Park, MN (piano/spoken voice arrangement)
June 25, 2006: Fr. Dale Korogi, Carl Schroeder - Minneapolis, MN (piano/spoken voice arrangement)
March 26, 2007: Carolyn Albert, Carl Schroeder - Minneapolis, MN (piano/spoken voice arrangement)
May 1, 2007: Kenwood Symphony Orchestra, Chief Judge Edward Toussaint, narrator; Dr. Jeffrey Stirling, conductor - Minneapolis, MN premiere
May 6, 2007: Kenwood Symphony Orchestra, Chief Judge Edward Toussaint, narrator; Dr. Jeffrey Stirling, conductor - Minneapolis, MN
Jan. 18, 2009: Carsten Slostad, Carl Schroeder - St. Louis Park, MN (piano/spoken voice arrangement)
Mar. 24, 2009: Carsten Slostad, Carl Schroeder - St. Paul, MN (piano/spoken voice arrangement)
Feb. 28, 2010: First Unitarian Society Orchestra; Mary Bohman, narrator; Dr. Jeffrey Stirling, conductor - Minneapolis, MN

RECORDINGS
88 Keys: Piano Music by Carl Schroeder (solo piano arrangement) - Carl Schroeder