A commissioned composition by Ray Shattenkirk of the Hope College music faculty received critical acclaim when presented by the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra in Albuquerque on Friday-Saturday, Feb. 18-19.

          Shattenkirk's composition, "American Icons,"
  laments extinct American wildlife and expresses concern for
  endangered species.  The concert presented three movements
  of a larger work that is still in progress.
          "In 'American Icons,'" the quixotic Shattenkirk
  has created a lyrical and moving evocation and loss," the
  "Albuquerque Journal" said.  "Shattenkirk's passion was
  conveyed through a fine musical sensibility and sure
  craftsmanship."
          The three movements presented during the
  Albuquerque concert concern the extinction and endangerment
  of butterflies; the extinction of the passenger pigeon; and
  the extinct Eastern Bison.  Completed in their original form
  in 1994, 1998 and 1995 respectively, the three movements
  were orchestrated through a commission from the NMSO.
          The NMSO's musical director, David Lockington, is
  also musical director of the Grand Rapids Symphony
  Orchestra.  He and Shattenkirk have been friends since they
  met while studying music at Yale University.
          The movements are half of a planned one-hour
  composition that the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra will
  premiere in May of 2001.  The completed composition's finale
  will be "Wings of Hope," which premiered during the
  inauguration of Hope College President James Bultman on
  Friday, Oct. 22.
          Shattenkirk is composer-in-residence and assistant
  professor of music at Hope.  He joined the faculty in the
  fall of 1999.
          He has received numerous awards and prizes,
  including a National Endowment for the Arts Composer
  Fellowship, the Lakond Prize of the American Academy of Arts
  and Letters, a California Council for the Arts fellowship
  and several Meet the Composer Awards.  He has been a fellow
  at the Tanglewood, Aspen and American Dance festivals, and
  at the MacDowell Colony.
          Among others, he has also received commissions
  from the Long Island Philharmonic, Chamber Music America and
  Collage.
          Shattenkirk holds bachelor's degrees from the
  University of Florida, and a master's and doctorate from
  Harvard University, and has also pursued his musical
  training at Yale University, the Massachusetts Institute of
  Technology and the University of California-Berkeley.  In
  addition to Hope, he has taught at the Yale School of Music,
  Harvard University and the Preparatory Department of the San
  Francisco Conservatory.