Autumn Dance was originally written for my new colleague, oboist Marlen Vavrikova, to celebrate our arrival at Grand Valley State University. For over a month I struggled to come up with suitable material, until I saw her perform at a local Hurricane Katrina benefit. Her beautiful, rich sound captivated me. And so I wrote material that would especially allow these characteristics to be evident—a relatively simple line and structure that enables the audience to focus clearly on the performer. I composed much of this work while running. Almost every morning I run, past a beautiful tree-lined meadow that had brilliant colors in the fall. Shortly after starting to write I always paired that image with the music. The work may also be performed using amplification and basic processing. For exact details contact me. Thank you to Andy Hudson and his student Wren Whalen for helping to bring this version to light.