Mei Zhou Bao was exciting for me to write. it is a product of the symphonic composition project, and therefore is made of pieces of music submitted by my high school students. in the dorian mode, it comes complete with 23 meter changes (some students and i counted) and has several percussion parts (for my several percussionists.) the title comes from the mandarin word for "panther." the recording is not great - finale didn't like some of the more extreme dynamics nor my desire for wind chimes and gong, but the general feel is there.