PROGRAM NOTE “Hatzvi Israel” Eulogy for female voice, flute, string quartet and harp was written in 1968 on commission by New York Philharmonic violinist Stanley Hoffman. I wrote it at a pivotal time in my life when I was departing for the first time from the safe and familiar world of tonality, having found myself…
Read more
PROGRAM NOTE Tzadik KaTamar for Cantor and Piano is a celebratory piece intended to be performed as part of synagogue services, as well as on other ceremonial occasions. Commissioned by Beth Emet—The Free Synagogue in Evanston, Illinois, to honor Rabbi Peter and Elaine Knobel in commemoration of the Rabbi’s 30 years of service to the…
Read more
PROGRAM NOTE When Bruce Weinberger, tenor saxophonist with the Rascher Saxophone Quartet, first approached me in the spring of 2009 with an invitation to compose a work for the Rascher together with Paul Hillier’s Ars Nova Copenhagen, I was thrilled at the prospect of writing for a group of such stellar musicians — some of…
Read more
PROGRAM NOTE The title Fault Line is a metaphor for the volatility of human existence. Underneath even the most seemingly orderly of lives, fault lines lie, at times totally invisible on the surface, yet capable of erupting with the power to shutter and change all. Fault Line may be heard as a journey of a…
Read more
PROGRAM NOTE Apprehensions was one of nine works commissioned by WFMT, Chicago’s Fine Arts Radio Station, as part of a series examining the 20th century art song. It was my initial intention to group together a number of poems, when I came across Apprehensions by Sylvia Plath. Written in the last year of her life,…
Read more