2024!
12/29/20244 min read
I'm astonished and mortified that it's been over a year since my last blog!
My biggest composition project in 2024 was a commission from a friend.
As always, much brainstorming took place in the initial stages. From a
guitar solo, to a duet for guitar and violin (my commissioner was eager for me
to write something 'portable', the piece finally morphed into a quintet; one
inspiration of the change of focus was their discovery that a distant
relative had once played violin in Troškūnai, a small village in Lithuania in the 1920s. A
young bride visited this village with her husband, in 1926, and left an
eloquent diary. She writes: 'They say that geniuses spring up from who knows where...
Here, buried in a little obscure village in Lithuania, we should come across two men
whose hearts and souls dwell in their violins...' The first movement of this work
(A summer night in Troškūnai) evokes the music the young couple heard - and danced
to - during her visit. Later she attends a wedding feast with the same musicians, who
play a kozatsky and a quadrille. I've included them as well.
Fabric collage: Sonia Kovitz
The second movement (Farewell. Flight. Dreams) is inspired by accounts of the flight from the shtetl in 1941 as the
Nazis approached. But both the commissioner and I were concerned that this movement should reflect the plight of anyone fleeing danger and in exile: the sorrow of farewell, the terror of pursuit, and the dreams of a better life. The work was composed for Hallifax's wonderful Rhapsody Quintet, and will receive its first performance at St. Matthew's Church on August 26, as part of the closing concert in the Summer Music@Barrington series.
Rhapsody Quintet at Government House, Halifax
Soo Garay as Pearl/Nan
But once again COVID, in conjunction with other mishaps, intervened.
One of our six actors had to withdraw a week before opening. We were
lucky to be able to replace her, but a few days later the stage manager
tested positive for COVID. Once again, we found a replacement, but then,
between the dress rehearsal and opening night, the male lead tested
positive. I stepped in, masked, to take his place, but I could not learn the
beautifully intricate blocking, including manipulating and moving scenery
throughout every corner of the space - not just between scenes but during
them as well. So we settled for an 'enhanced reading,' with costumes,
greatly reduced movement, and music stands, but - blessedly - we were
able to maintain Christian Hansen's magnificent projections.
Tip Finless as Junior
.Photographer Stoo Metz and his assistant were the only 'outsiders' to see and hear the dress rehearsal; they commented that it had the intensity of a 'fevered dream.' Wanda and I both hope that audiences will soon be able to experience this work as they did; and we are deeply grateful to everyone whose unstinting efforts enabled it to reach the stage, in the face of all obstacles.
Photographer Stoo Metz and his assistant were the only 'outsiders' to see and hear the dress rehearsal; they commented that it had the intensity of a 'fevered dream.' Wanda and I both hope that audiences will soon be able to experience this work as they did; and we are deeply grateful to everyone whose unstinting efforts enabled it to reach the stage, in the face of all obstacles.
Photographer Stoo Metz and his assistant were the only 'outsiders' to see and hear the dress rehearsal; they commented that it had the intensity of a 'fevered dream.' Wanda and I both hope that audiences will soon be able to experience this work as they did; and we are deeply grateful to everyone whose unstinting efforts enabled it to reach the stage, in the face of all obstacles.
Jennifer King, piano
2024 was also the year which finally saw 'The Heart of Things' reach the stage. It has been six years since Wanda Graham sent me the powerful text which would become the basis for our 'spoken-word opera' - see my blog for February 27, 2019, for my account of the genesis and early stages of this project. COVID, of course, altered its course - one blessing of the pandemic was that it gave me a long stretch of time to work uninterrupted and in solitude. The score was essentially complete by 2022, and we were able to do an online workshop with six actors, covering most of the drama (see the blog for September 7, 2022) .
