Fall, 2024:
Regarding the Moment
between Summer and Fall
Greetings to all in this shift of season. And it feels time for a change, as a colorful wag once put it, "For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells." Indeed, over the summer, there were some lovely instantiations of my music: in June, Tyrian Purple was in Santa Fe at the Currents New Media Festival, and Adam Kossler gave the second performance of An Deilf at the Norfolk State/Tidewater Guitar Society. Even more surprising was the resurfacing of an older work, Forks of Buffalo, performed by members of the International Contemporary Ensemble in July at the Walden School in NH. AND a lovely unexpected interview by a team of young composers and theorists trying to figure out the world and sharing their thoughts via podcast!
But as we move from Summer to Fall, there are still more things to anticipate, from returns to friends and new works on opposite coasts and across the Americas, North and South.
Ars Poetica in South Carolina
On Sept 12, I'll be joining poet Marlanda Dekine for a hybrid live/recorded performance of Ars Poetica at Georgetown County Library Auditorium. As you may recall, Ars Poetica was a centerpiece of my 2023 album 'The Bird is an Alphabet'; this event will involve new video projections and the use of an instrumental-only version of the recording to enable Marlanda to bring our work to more places and in more contexts.
A premiere: Se je fume, c'est ma compleccïon
Se je fume, c'est ma compleccïon will have a double-barrel premiere on 11 Oct 24 at in Eugene, Oregon, and on 13 Oct at ChatterBox PDX, a spinoff group from the amazing ChatterBox ABQ, performed by the fabulous DuoKrom, a partnership of Inés Voglar Belgique of the Oregon Symphony and legendary flutist Molly Barth. It is one of my works of generative hermeneutics; this piece is a reimagining of "Puisque je sui fumeux plains de fumee" by 14th-century poet-composer Jehan Simon de Haspre, reshuffling Haspre's material and techniques, creating a volatile blend of Medieval and Modern elements, echoing the text:
My temper is a fiery one, indeed; So if I seethe with anger, don't despair
My scalding wit shall never cause one care. It's fine to fume,
and there is no harm done, If you can get steamed up yet burn no one.*
An Installation: Avatopology
While this is happening, works of mine will be parsed and diced and redistrubeted as part of digital artist Frank Wang's Avatopology installation at the NARS Foundation in Brooklyn. The installation will open on 4 October and run until the 30th. And as part of the installations multiple events, Dan Lippel will be performing La Comète on 18 Oct in the foundation's studio spaces.
Another Premiere: De Rerum Natura
And then, that same weekend on the 20th, counter)induction will be premiering a new work at their first concert of the season. De Rerum Natura expands on themes from my setting of Jennifer Chang's "Small Philosophies", but the delicacy of the settings (premiered last year by the Faders-Bower Duo in NY) are displaced by rich and rapidly shifting textures and affects, severe minimalism, and structured yet combative dialogue. The premiere will be at Tenri Cultural Institute in NY, featuring violinist Yezu Woo and (again!) the yeoman's work of guitarist Dan Lippel.
On Cosmopolitanism, and a violin sonata
December will bring my music (and me!) back to Belo Horizonte, Brazil: Perfidia | Sonata for violin and piano will be premiered by Rommel Fernandes (principle of the Orquestra Filarmônica de Minas Gerais) and the award-winning pianist Elisa Galeano at Fundação de Educação Artística, Belo Horizonte, and then again at Universidade Federal de São João del-Rei on December 7 and 8th. These performances will be interlaced with performances of Sonanate 21, a group made of members of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais dedicated to research in and performance of chamber works by contemporary composers culminating in a performance at the Conservatório, a down cultural center providing musical education to the diverse urban community of Belo Horizonte.
