chilly days

Fall is breezing into New York.

Many exciting things coming up--it's hard not to get overwhelmed, but every project I'm involved with informs every other, and that's the way I like to work. I'm about to head up to upstate New York with ICE, to participate in a grand-opening week for the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), a state-of-the-art facility in Troy, NY, where we'll be sharing a bill with Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Wooster Group, among other great organizations. The program is a piece by Kurtag, for which I'll be playing harpsichord and harmonium. My first time on harmonium: I expect to be transported back to the turn of the last century the minute I start playing it.

My new piece, premiering at a Close Range concert on November 23, is "Gardens of the City (Lied Ohne Worte)," whose central feature is a syllabic setting, to a continuous melody, of my favorite poem by Rilke. A true song without words, it's a piece with a long history, and I'm excited to bring it to the public. A few more weeks of finishing touches and it'll be ready.

In the meantime, I'm praying for the future of the U.S., and trying to get a group together to help with polling in Pennsylvania on election day.