Drawn Above by Anthony Chmielewski

The TCU Percussion Orchestra, conducted by Brian A. West, performs "Drawn Above" by Anthony Chmielewski live at PASIC 2025 on 11-13-25. Posted with permission. Drawn Above (2025) I’ve always been fascinated by mountains. We’re always told of their vastness through numbers – how many miles they rise above the ground, how many states a range spans, how many millions of years they have stood. But until you find yourself at the base of a mountain, looking up as clouds engulf the summit, those numbers are meaningless. The awareness that nature alone created something so incomprehensibly beautiful is quite humbling to me. As a native Texan, I am sometimes envious of those who wake up every day to a landscape covered with mountains. Yet, I’ve come to value my relationship with mountains. I rarely get to see them. But when I do, it’s an extraordinary experience. Drawn Above is my attempt to capture that sense of awe: the feeling of being transfixed before something greater than myself. Drawn Above was commissioned by Dr. Brian West and the Texas Christian University Percussion Orchestra. Notes by the composer