Emergence premieres on Zoom on April 11! Stay tuned for more details on my Performances page as it gets closer. Here’s the program note!
“Like so many others living through this bizarre COVID-19 period, I’ve spent much of the past year inside a sort of cocoon. So much changed so quickly. We shifted our lives to make sure our children were safe, our livelihoods secure, our parents protected. And music, that lifeblood so many of us rely on, felt like it vanished for awhile. This commission, from my friend and collaborator Ann Bobo for her gifted student Alicia Kim, was a personal emergence for me: the first project I worked on since COVID-19 changed everything.
But the title also refers to something Ms. Kim wanted the piece to express: self discovery. The ending of Emergence is unwritten; I’ve supplied some colors for her palette, but other than that the ending is completely up to the performer. It is my hope that this act of spontaneous composition gives Ms. Kim an opportunity to end the piece on her terms each time she plays it.”