Tonight at Tufts University the incredible duo Lamnth, Lilit Hartunian and Nicholas Tolle, are giving the second performance of my H.D.-inspired piece for violin and cimbalom, which was the dream, which was the veil? The concert begins at 8pm in Distler Hall in the Granoff Music Center, and will also feature a new commission by my mentor at Tufts, John McDonald, as well as a new commission by Yixiao Wang. Rounding out the program is a new performance of Sonatine (1984) by Peter Maxwell Davies.
I am thrilled to be at the Bowdoin International Music Festival this weekend as a guest artist for the world premiere of my trio for flute, viola, and harp, Shine Darkly Over Me. It’s a joy to be back here after participating in the festival back in 2017, and to be programmed on the Gamper Festival of Contemporary Music alongside some other fantastic pieces, including ones by Mandy Fang and Tyler Taylor who are here as well.
I am greatly looking forward to Sophia Szokolay’s final DMA recital this Saturday at 8pm in Brown Hall at NEC. She is premiering the second movement from my solo violin piece Tide Tiding Time, “Flotsam/Jetsam,” alongside some wonderful works by Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol, Amy Beach, and Richard Strauss. There’s even a György Kurtág world premiere! Also, I’m happy to share that Sophia has recorded all of Tide Tiding Time for a release in the future, so stay tuned for that.
I’m very excited to be presenting the first two scenes of my chamber opera-in-progress, Eidolon, based on H.D.’s epic poem Helen in Egypt, today at the Longy School of Music’s Pickman Hall. This is the culmination of the last few years that I have spent as an artist-in-residence at Longy, and it promises to be an exciting finale. Sonja Tengblad is singing the lead role of Helen and she sounds fantastic surrounded by some wonderful Longy singers, Charlotte Ensley and Daniel Haaskenson, and a chamber group of Aleksis Martin on clarinet, Ross Jarrell on percussion, and Yvonne Cox on harp. I look forward to sharing the recording here on my website soon.
I am extremely excited about the premiere tonight of my newly commissioned piece for the violin and cimbalom duo Lamnth, which was the dream, which was the veil? Working with Lilit Hartunian and Nick Tolle on this piece has been incredibly rewarding, and I look forward to the recording session we have scheduled this weekend. Stay tuned for a release of new violin music!
Tonight is also special because I’ve curated a program at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall that celebrates the musical life of legendary NEC composition faculty member Arthur Berger. There will be performances of his works, in addition to premieres by my wonderful colleagues Kati Agócs, Stratis Minakakis, and Rodney Lister, as well as a new collaboration between Ran Blake and John Mallia. It’s going to be a memorable night.
My article, “Form and Exhaustion in Pascal Dusapin’s Quad – In Memoriam Gilles Deleuze,” has been published in the latest volume of Perspectives of New Music! This project has been years in the making, and couldn’t have been possible without M. Dusapin graciously granting me an interview in his studio in Paris back in 2016. A huge thank you is due to him, his publisher Editions Salabert, the editorial staff at Perspectives, everyone at Duke University who helped me to shape it over the years, and to my colleagues for their support. It’s a dream come true to see my work in one of my favorite theory journals!
What a wonderful surprise it was to learn that Transient Canvas are playing my piece Ratyll tonight in Prague, especially since I was only a three-hour train ride away in Bavaria. Long story short, I’ve had a wonderful, if brief, stay in beautiful Prague. Last night I took in Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre, which was a stunning production. And today Amy, Matt, and I went to the National Museum, which had an interesting collection to say the least. I think the most striking thing has been the architecture—the city is gorgeous! I’m looking forward very much to the concert in a few hours at the Komunitní prostor Smíchov, which includes pieces by Yaz Lancaster, Mikhail Johnson, Yi-Ting Lu, and Elliott Miles McKinley.
I am beyond thrilled with the premiere of my newest work, We the Way Outward, by the Callithumpian Consort last night at NEC’s Jordan Hall. This piece for flute, bass clarinet, violin, cello, drum set, and piano was commissioned by Boston Musica Viva as part of their Write It Now Commissioning Initiative in 2021 and draws inspiration from Nathaniel Mackey’s incredible poetry collection Double Trio. The program also included Alvin Singleton’s Be Natural, Georg Friedrich Haas’ tria ex uno – Sextet after Josquin Desprez, and two other BMV commissions, Peter Child’s Six Dances of Death after Holbein the Younger and Henry VIII, and John Heiss’s Quartet (1971). It was a night to remember, and I am so grateful to Steve Drury and all of the players for an incredible premiere performance.
I am excited for the first NEC Composers’ Series concert of 2023 in Jordan Hall tonight at 7:30pm. Sophia Szokolay is performing the first movement of my massive violin solo, Tide Tiding Time, and she sounds phenomenal! I’m so grateful to her for learning this really challenging piece. The concert features some other really exciting pieces, including a piano solo by my colleague Kati Agócs, a song cycle by Malcolm Peyton, and a newly commissioned percussion sextet by Marc Anthony Turnage, who will be in residence this week at NEC as the Malcolm Peyton composer-in-residence.
Today was a very special day for me. Emmanuel Music premiered my newly commissioned motet, Magnificat, during the service for the third Sunday in Advent at Emmanuel Church in Boston. As a long time member of the congregation and former sexton at Emmanuel, it was a dream come trueThis setting of the Magnificat seeks to tap into the great joy inherent in this canticle, and is structured as an introduction to J. S. Bach’s cantata Ärgre dich, o Seele, nicht (Do not be confounded, O soul), BWV 186a. You can here it here (at 19:10 and before the cantata at 1:22:10): Magnificat.