Romeo and Juliet the musical – Online Premiere – Full Show (English)

I’m excited to announce that my musical “Romeo and Juliet” is now available to watch on YouTube (Full Show – English)

I composed the music for this stage production entirely to the original text of William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. The RJ musical premiered on stage January-February 2015 at the Historic Lincoln Theatre in Mount Vernon, WA. This video is from the live stage performance on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2015.

Continue reading “Romeo and Juliet the musical – Online Premiere – Full Show (English)” →

The Lord’s Prayer Song – Orchestral Music for Soloist and Choir

The Lord’s Prayer – Music by Conrad Askland (ASCAP). © 1997. Orchestral music for soloist and choir.

The lyrics for my rendition of the Lord’s Prayer are from Matthew 6:9-13 which cover through “but deliver us from all evil.” As Wikipedia would have you know: “Other ancient authorities add, in some form, For the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours forever. Amen.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_Prayer

Continue reading “The Lord’s Prayer Song – Orchestral Music for Soloist and Choir” →

Tribute to Abraham Lincoln

Tribute to Abraham Lincoln  – the Greatest U.S. President. Background music is Piano Nocturne #14 “Aqua” by Conrad Askland.

It was a very moving experience to work on this video. In the past month I have been creating some videos about historical characters and actual historical figures. This was one of my favorites, to be able to spend time alone (virtually at least) with the great Abraham Lincoln. I am always moved by his quote that encourages us to follow “the better angels of our nature.” To me it is a similar hopeful thought akin to the early U.S. settlers who dreamed of “a city upon a hill.” We fall short. We always do. But we can strive and we can be encouraged to be the better side of who we are as individuals, as a nation and as a global community.

Continue reading “Tribute to Abraham Lincoln” →

Search For Me – Electronica Hip Hop song ballad

“Search For Me” – Words and Music by Gailyn Addis and Conrad Askland.

“Search For Me” was a song collaboration with Gailyn Addis. We wrote the words and music together, recorded the song and it was released through Orchard Music on the 1999 Gailyn Addis self-titled debut album. Gailyn was one of my all-time favorite vocal artists to record with and this is one of my favorite songs that we wrote together in preparation for her 1999 album release.

Continue reading “Search For Me – Electronica Hip Hop song ballad” →

Animated Faces of Most Famous 100 Classical Music Composers

New video I created by animating the faces of the most famous 100 Classical music composers. I felt a very strange connection with each composer as I saw their faces come alive. There were several on this list that I was not familiar with so I also spent a lot of time on Wikipedia learning more about many of them. I hope others have the same experience where, after seeing these classical composers come to life, they cannot help but learn more about each composer’s life and music.

I have several favorite animations in this group. My top favorites are #15 Franz Liszt, #19 Antonio Vivaldi, #22 Dmitri Shostakovich, #27 Claudio Monteverdi and my top favorite composer face animation of the whole group is #45 Christoph Willibald Gluck.

Continue reading “Animated Faces of Most Famous 100 Classical Music Composers” →

“If You Were Ever To Go” | Retro jazz standard-type ballad love song

“If You Were Ever To Go” | Words and Music by Conrad Askland. Vocals by Leisha Skinner.

I’ve had a surprising spike of interest in this song today on my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/ConradAskland.  “If You Were Ever to Go” is a retro jazz standard-type ballad love song for female vocals, piano and strings with a Nelson Riddle orchestra vibe.

I actually wrote this song back in 2016 while taking the class “Music for Film and TV” with Berklee College of Music. It was an assignment to write a song that could be used as background music while two people danced and talked in a lounge with a live band playing in the background. This class focused on writing stylistic music that could be used by music supervisors for placement in tv shows and web series.

Continue reading ““If You Were Ever To Go” | Retro jazz standard-type ballad love song” →