Cantate weekend

So Cantate Chamber Singers did a beautiful job premiering my piece Torno al Foco (which won their composition competition this year), and they managed to pack the house despite the Inauguration-weekend traffic snarls and some seriously cold weather.

A few things made this an especially interesting moment for me. First and most obviously, the excitement building up in D.C. and in the world that weekend. Second, the fact that Cantate had given me my first professional performance (when I was 18 and won the College division of the competition), so this was a natural point for reflecting on everything that's been happening in the intervening years -- and all the things my Eastman-era self would've found surprising, pleasing or funny if she could've seen me at this point. Third, remembering the experience of writing Torno al Foco during a very intense and inspired month last summer. The Washington Post review called it "seductive," which I'll happily accept but which I find hilarious, because out of everything I've written this year, Torno al Foco feels like the least 'seductive' in purely musical terms.

But musical seductiveness is definitely a subject worth its own entry, so for now I'll say thank you to Cantate and Gisele Becker for a lovely, precise and joyful performance of my piece.