“Rolling down the hill on Blossom Street toward the Congaree, John Fitz Rogers heard a sunset. On his route home from the USC School of Music a few years ago, “there was this amazing sunset with these pink hues. As I was driving I was trying to keep my eyes on the road, but also watch the sunset. I’ve always been fascinated with sunsets, and this one was incredibly striking.’ While the notion of drawing inspiration from natural phenomenon is the stuff of Romantic legend, composers tend to hear ideas at inconvenient times – half-mesmerized by a wash of auditory luster, half-squinting toward a traffic light lost in the sun, both hands clenching the steering wheel. Rogers admit fascination with numerous affairs of the everyday, but particularly with sunsets: the slowness, the ephemeral grace, the colors as they imperceptibly slide and shift. Fascination enough with the constancy and change of this particular sunset became the basis for his most recent orchestral work, The Passing Sun, which was commissioned by the South Carolina Philharmonic; its premiered on January 11, 2014. …” – Tom Dempster
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