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.
