Endeavor

Endeavor Album Coming Soon

Endeavor is a bold exploration of the relentless pursuit of excellence. From Regina Harris Baiocchi’s evocative Muse for Orchestra to the world premiere of Madison local Autumn Maria Reed’s Mental Health Suite, this program is a testament to resilience and creativity. Experience the cinematic sweep of Eric Gould’s An American City and the passionate tribute of Omar Thomas’ Of Our New Day Begun, which blends soulful tones with powerful rhythms. The performance culminates with the raw power of Xavier Foley’s Soul Bass concerto, as the composer himself commands the stage as soloist.

More than a concert, more than an album—it’s a movement, recorded live to inspire generations to come. Endeavor was performed live on October 10, 2025, and is coming soon to CD and streaming.

Community Engagement

UW Odyssey Project

On October 8, 2025, composer and bass soloist Xavier Foley, composers Regina Harris Baiocchi, Eric Gould, and Autumn Maria Reed visited The UW Odyssey project classroom. Xavier Foley was able to share some of his music, while Regina Harris Baiocchi and Eric Gould shared their stories. 

In relation to this project, UW Odyssey published two editions of their class newsletter, "Odyssey Oracle." A "Special 'Endeavor' Edition" and "Endeavoring on an Endeavor" – highlighting the students' reflection on the classroom visit and on what the word "Endeavor" means to them. Current and past Odyssey students attended Endeavor on October 10, at the Overture Center, sharing a pizza dinner at Ian’s before the concert, attending the pre-concert discussion, the performance, and the post-concert party.

Odyssey Oracle, Special "Endeavor" Edition

Endeavoring on an Endeavor

Xavier Foley, bass/composer
 

Xavier Foley is known for communicating his virtuosity and passion for music on the double bass, which is rarely presented as a solo instrument. Xavier is a first-prize winner of the 2016 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, winner of the 2014 Sphinx Competition, and a 2018 Recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant. As a composer, Xavier’s recent commissions include Santa Fe Pro Musica, The Cabrillo Festival in conjunction with the Mahler Foundation, the Sphinx Organization co-commissioned with Carnegie Hall and the New World Symphony, Chicago Symphony’s MusicNOW (curated by Jessie Montgomery), and the Oregon Symphony, where he has been named Artist-in-Residence for the next three seasons. Read Xavier's full bio here.
 

Regina Harris Baiocchi, composer

Regina Harris Baiocchi is a composer, author, and poet who inspires emotional investment of performers and audiences. Her music has been performed by members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, US Army Band, American Guild of Organists, Chicago Brass Quintet, Milwaukee Brass Quintet, Gaudete Brass, Lincoln Trio, et al. Compositions include orchestral music; a mass; libretto and opera; marimba concerto; hand drum choir; ballet; chamber, choral, jazz, gospel; solo: flute, oboe, oboe d’amore, English horn, bass oboe, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, piano, and pipe organ. Many compositions are commissioned work. Orchestral music includes Communion, Muse, and Orchestral Suite. Read Regina's full bio here.

Eric Gould, composer

While his three CDs have met with success and have enabled him to make a mark on the national jazz scene, these are but one aspect of a multi-dimensional career for pianist, composer, and arranger Eric Gould. As a bandleader, musician, producer, and educator, he has distinguished himself through his work and compiled a resume that allows him to move between various genres of music and areas of focus. Eric Gould currently resides in Brookline, MA, where he is active in composing, performing, teaching, recording, production, and arts management consultation. He is listed in the 2007 edition of "Who's Who in America." Read Eric's full bio here.
 

Omar Thomas, composer

Described as "elegant, beautiful, sophisticated, intense, and crystal clear in emotional intent," the music of Omar Thomas continues to move listeners everywhere it is performed. Born to Guyanese parents in Brooklyn, New York in 1984, Omar moved to Boston in 2006 to pursue a Master of Music in Jazz Composition at the New England Conservatory of Music after studying Music Education at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He is the protégé of lauded composers and educators Ken Schaphorst and Frank Carlberg, and has studied under multiple Grammy-winning composer and bandleader Maria Schneider. Read Omar's full bio here.

Autumn Maria Reed, composer

Autumn Maria Reed is a Wisconsin-based composer, orchestrator, and sound designer and Berklee alumna. She has composed for theater Music Theatre of Madison, Are We Delicious?, and KR Women’s Theatre and orchestras River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (ROCO), Brazil’s Orquestra Sinfônica Teatro Nacional Claudio Santoro (OSTNCS), Chicago Philharmonic. She collaborates with The Black String Triage Ensemble and Black Diaspora Symphony Orchestra, performing and composing music for trauma victims. Passionate about mental health advocacy, she enjoys time with family. Read Autumn's full bio here.

Liner Notes, Dr. Bill Banfield

This recording, concert of “Endeavor” is aptly titled and gives us the very broad and delightful range of diverse musical languages and compositional approaches, elegantly, interestingly, beautiful and robustly expressed here by these five modern contemporary American composers. This is what I heard and witnessed live.

Regina Harris Baiocchi’s Muse for Orchestra; Oh, that opening compelling line. The commanding material from the celli is what begins the work and calls our attention to it. Her mastery of orchestration becomes apparent as a senior composer who has handled the orchestra and themes and then shares this within the various orchestral families. She energetically calls forth as she powerfully handles the music and thematic materials to the end. How delightful the kazoo. Very fine orchestral concert music that stays with you. The Muse For Orchestra is a perfect opening to this album, and a poetic ordering in the hands of a writing poet. A wonderful musical offering.

Mental Health Suite is surprisingly tender given its title suggesting trauma. Yet composer Autumn Maria Reed brings a sonically delightful work. It opens with a series of orchestral melodic treatments that begin to tell the story of the challenge of dealing with instability and its layers and states of mind.  You hear this composer’s exploration and tale through a portrait of a work meant to display human fragility. It is heard beautifully. 1. "The Origin Story" 2. "The Persistent Past" 3. "Fearful Future," and finally 4. "As if Nothing Happened." The later movements  are a follow up to the opening which creates the most honest spirit and theme reconciliation, as the composer has dealt with mental stress, alienation, anxiety and the desire to find rest in instability. This piece shares the composer’s exploration of this human struggle but treats it beautifully with exploration that does not lead to inevitable demise. Even the way she introduces the borrowed children’s melody at the end, she teases us with melodic familiarity that morphs here into dense orchestral treatments and development. The crowds loved it.

Xavier Foley’s Soul Bass concerto; This is joyful music and virtuosity dances out of its fabulous melodies, materials and through the hands of a bass stylist virtuoso. Foley handles the materials so marvelously, clearly an audience and music lover’s dream. I remember how visually captivating this concerto was. A real triumph in creating a work that is “19th century romantic” and yet really lies in the contemporary realm. Foley spoke to an audience explaining he was not attempting to create a popular or jazz concerto, that it is in the classical tradition born in the mind and hands of a modern melody man who was inspired by Soul music. The middle movement champions bass out front leading the orchestral sections into a most luscious and lovely interplay of themes and exchanges between strings and woodwinds with just a hint of Blues laying in the backdrop. The closing movement shares a link with the opening, and mostly the soulful treatment of the lead bass solo line running forward then inviting the other orchestra family members to again join in the sonic play. This is virtuosity in contemporary and soulful orchestral music that is memorable.

Eric Gould’s An American City; The three movements pay homage to our American landscapes with its bold opening materials that chronicles the growth of the American City, from Native American roots through to its inevitable morphing with migrations of peoples. It then goes to the development of the metropolis city heard in the themes depicting modernity then comes, as he writes, “ the machines, belching fire and smoke and steam… made of iron and steel, these behemoths outwardly seem so different from mankind.” Clearly an American symphonic suite, Gould’s work wonderfully treats these themes in a language reminiscent of so many American composers who meld 19th century orchestral languages with modern tensions and Americanisms, jazz even, as his bold work is hugely imaginative and witty.  

Omar Thomas’ Of Our New Day Begun; Pays homage again here to great human traditions, in this case the triumphant and challenging journey of Black Americans into the freedom, democratic social experiment not always meant for all to share in as this song tells. Anyone knows this tale of freedom and in this tune which percolates through the Negro national anthem, by James Weldon Johnson, if not always heard by all reaches all in its hope to, “Lift every voice and sing till earth and heaven ring, with liberty”.  As Thomas notes, “Black Americans have turned to the church to find refuge and grounding in times of trial”. That triumphant anthem rifles at the journey as does the piece, what it means to live for freedom’s reach. Thomas explores this dilemma of democracy or delusion of democracy in the overall work. The Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra creates a riveting experience here with the burst of the choral sections, claps and stomps, as the orchestra invites us into what it means to lift every voice and sing.

On this "Endeavor" recording, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra achieves the call to explore new combinations of musical language from composers whose great works come together onto the same musical stage. You will enjoy this beautifully performed music.

Dr. Bill Banfield, Composer Curator, Musical Landscapes in Color