Yay for having a reason to visit Calgary! I’m off to Cowtown this week for the Forms of Sound Festival at the University of Calgary. I have two pieces receiving a total of three performances. I know that sounds strange, but by an unusual twist in programming, both the University of Calgary and the Land’s End Ensemble independently decided to program my little violin/percussion duet From the Chalice of Becoming, and when they discovered this, they decided to keep both performances.
So there will be one performance by U of C students followed two days later by another performance by members of Land’s End, which gives me the rare opportunity to hear two interpretations of the piece by different performers, practically back-to-back.
In 2003 I formed From the Chalice of Becoming out of violin and percussion segments from my violin concerto. Then it sat, unperformed, for 11 years, until, unbeknownst to me, U of C students Conor Stuart and Ethan Cayko performed it at a new music concert last December. I don’t think they even knew it was the world premiere. They’ll play it again this week before Land’s End puts its own stamp on the piece.
You never know how things will transpire in this business. Sometimes a piece languishes in obscurity for a decade only to get three performance in two months.
Land’s End is also playing my stock-market-inspired trio Triple Witching. This is a piece that has been performed by several different groups over the years, which pleases me. Multiple performances and different interpretations are a good thing. In conjunction with this performance, my friend and colleague, the wonderful composer Vincent Ho, recently did a Skype interview with me (my first!) about composing and Triple Witching in particular:
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