Inspiration for my Dies Irae

Last week on the 21st of September, at the International Composers Festival, my Dies Irae for solo Soprano, sung by the wonderful Katerina Mina and full symphonic orchestra was performed. The orchestra was conducted by the brilliant conductor John Andrews. The inspiration for this piece came from several places..Dante’s Inferno and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I had to tone down, pardon the pun, the amount of extended string techniques I could have used to make the piece even scarier.
Some of this can be heard in my string orchestral composition Borgo Pass

And also from my symphonic short Beneath Calm Waters

That Gothic, Gypsy feels comes through doesn’t it….but I think the Dies Irae was scarier!!