Two years of isolation at home allowed me the time and mental space to embark on several ambitious projects that, were it not for COVID, I would probably have never even considered doing. The first was taking out my edition of Hart Crane’s epic poem of America, The Bridge, and deciding to do something musically with it. With fifteen poems in the book, it was too long to set the texts, so instead, I wound up writing a symphonic fantasy for viola & orchestra, in fifteen movements, each a musical reflection of one of Hart Crane’s poems.
As the world returns to normal (more or less), I’m working to record the music I wrote during COVID. I started with a recording of a short symphony, AHIMSA, which was released in mid-2022. Last September, with the brilliant violist (and long-time friend and collaborator) Brett Deubner, I went back to the Czech Republic to record THE BRIDGE. With the edited and mixed files arriving this past week, I anticipate being able to release THE BRIDGE as my next album sometime in the spring.
Next up, with soprano Lisa Rombach (who was one of the vocal soloists on my 2022 album collaboration with Pandolfis Consort), I will return to the Czech Republic to record DIE ERSTE ELEGIE, a symphonic setting in five movements of Rilke’s great poem. During the same week, we will record SYMPHONY OF SIGHS, a more recent one movement work composed in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Later in 2023, dates still to be set, I plan on again partnering with Lisa Rombach to record AGAINST WAR, settings of poems by various poets written in protest of the American invasion of Iraq, and EVERYTHING PASSES, settings of Zen poems about the impermanence of life.
And, then, there’s 2024! More to follow…
