What a fabulous week it was to work with the musicians of Zone Expérimentale Basel, a group of students at the Hochschüle fur Musik Basel, led by Yaron Deutsch. As part of their residency, I worked with the group extensively over the course of a week to hone my new piece written for the group, entitled sun-stilled. The piece is inspired by a bit of text from Nina MacLaughlin’s book Winter Solstice: An Essay
“The year is fading. Light is fading. Solstice means sun-stilled. It’s a wild sort of stilling, a thrashing, frenzied sort of stilling, a de-metering, a holding of the breath as the tension builds, as the darkness expands, until it cracks and the light drives in. That’s the hope.”
The ensemble, conducted by the incredible Friederike Scheunchen, navigated the score with grace and care under her direction. The openness and receptivity of the group was energizing and inspiring.
The piece was premiered on March 27, 2024. As part of an exchange, I will be traveling to Basel to meet again with this group for an additional performance in Basel on April 15. In addition, I will be participating in a symposium hosted by Johannes Kriedler, entitled The Art of Art Teaching: How Composition is Taught. I will be speaking on Sunday, April 14 to share my experiences as a composition student and how I plan to drive the world of composition teaching down the road.
Audio and video documentation is forthcoming.