Works

Orchestral Works

    • I. Rhapsody

    • II. Elegy

    • III. Rondo

    Commissioned by Scott Nichols and Family, 2001-02.
    Premiered by the Des Moines Symphony, Joseph Giunta, conductor, 2002.


    Recorded July 15, 2025 — Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Abbey Road Studios. Robert Thies, piano. Geoffrey Paterson, conductor.

  • Commissioned by Neal and Lori Robinson, 2007.

    Premiered by the Des Moines Symphony, Joseph Giunta, conductor, Des Moines Civic Center, 2008.

    Performed again, July 3, 2009, Iowa State Capitol, by the Des Moines Symphony, Joseph Giunta, conductor.

    Recorded July 16, 2025, by the Royal Philharmonic, Abbey Road Studios, Geoffrey Paterson, conductor.

  • Commissioned by Jack and Dawn Taylor.

    Premiered by the Des Moines Symphony, Joseph Giunta, Conductor.

    Robin Roewe, Tenor.

  • Orchestra reduction by James Viggo Poulsen.


    Score and parts (PDFs) available.

  • Also available in fully-orchestrated version.

    1. Alone

    2. Evening Star

    3. Hymn

    4. A Dream

    5. To One in Paradise

    1. Valentine to Edgar (Virginia Poe), for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano

    2. A Letter to Maria Clemm (Edgar A. Poe), for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano, also in fully-orchestrated version.

    3. A Letter of Maria Clemm (To Neilson Poe), for Baritone and Piano

  • Entreat Me Not to Leave You (from the Book of Ruth), for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano

    A Note to Robert Browning (Elizabeth Barrett Browning), for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano

    My North, My South (Dawn Taylor), for Medium High Voice and Piano

    Famous Last Words (The Last Words of 26 Well-Known People), for Medium High Voice and Piano

    Love, They Say (Jane Austen), for Medium High Voice and Piano

    Happy the Lab’rer (Cassandra Austen), for Medium High Voice and Piano

    Tao, Chapter 14 (Lao-Tze), for Medium High Voice and Piano

    Love and Death (Alfred, Lord Tennyson), for Medium High Voice and Piano, also in fully-orchestrated version.

    A Note to Robert Browning (Elizabeth Barrett Browning), for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano

    Soliloquy (Attributed to Abraham Lincoln), for Baritone and Piano

Art Songs

    • I. Rhapsody

    • II. Elegy

    • III. Rondo

    1. Episode

    2. Plains Nocturne

    3. Contrast

Piano Works

  • 1984 · SATB & Piano

    Words and Music by James Poulsen.
    Presbyterian Metro Ministries of Omaha, Sacred Composition Contest, 1984, 1st Prize.

  • 1993 · SATB, Brass Quartet & Piano/Organ

    Words: Old One-Hundredth.

  • 1999 · SATB & Piano

  • 2006 · Poem by Archibald MacLeish

Choral Works