This ballet was a commission from Margaret Flynn, who operates the Edmonton School of Ballet. She suggested one evening in April that I write it -- for performance the following December! I swallowed hard and said I would try. During that summer I took

DOWNLOAD  PINOCCHIO'S THEME

a holiday in England and spent each morning orchestrating the piece in the hotel room, while my wife was out shopping. Somehow I got it done, though I had to do a lot of borrowing. There are suggestions of Stravinsky, Holst, and many others; nothing literal, I just borrowed background harmonies and set my own melodies against them. I liked my crooked little Pinocchio theme so much that I redid later it as a solo piano piece (and it is entirely original!) A sample of that arrangement, a single page long and suitable for young players, may be downloaded at left, and if your sound is turned on, you should be hearing a Logic Pro computer simulation (controls below). I ask only that you inform me by email, below, of any performances so that I can keep this website up-to-date.

     A second theme from that ballet survives as well: if you click on the link, it will take you to my Dances for Camille, a suite for two pianos. The second movement, a Waltz, is in fact the Blue Fairy's theme from that production. You can read a description, and view a performance on Youtube, at the link.