“Derek Bermel’s Voices, a concerto for clarinet, with the composer playing the solo part brilliantly, was fun, music with brash humor and clever scoring ... The polished and the vernacular mingle in the bent-note evocations of speech — flirting, taunting, shouting and bantering — that open the concerto, as well as in the slow movement, based on an Irish folk melody, and the wild, unabashedly down-and-dirty jazz jam that ends the piece.”

“Derek Bermel’s Voices, a concerto for clarinet and orchestra, is a crowd-pleaser that is likely to enter the repertory of every orchestra that had a representative in the audience. Part of the appeal lies in the virtuosity and charisma of the composer, who was soloist. There doesn’t seem to be anything Bermel can’t do with the clarinet; but the appeal also lies in the music, which adds dimensions of wit and intelligence to melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic elements of immediate popular appeal. This is the kind of piece that makes your day.”

“Voices, an elaborate clarinet concerto mixing free jazz, Irish folk melody and funk. In the hands of a composer less assured, all that globe-trotting would seem like affectation; Bermel makes it an artistic imperative.”