I’m ridiculously excited that I’ll have not one, but TWO premieres at this year’s Ear Taxi Music Festival in Chicago.
It’s like everything has come full-circle. In 2021, the Gaudete Brass Quintet gave me my first commission to write a piece for them for Ear Taxi. This was a truly meaningful and validating experience for me as an emerging composer just starting to take things seriously.
The piece was well-received (“strongly individual and compelling”, “most impressive”, “gifted young composer”), and Gaudete (who’ve I formed a great friendship with the group) went on to perform the piece many times since (I lost count after 50 lol). So grateful to the group and Ear Taxi for such an incredible experience!
I remember sitting on the Penthouse floor of the Logan Center for the Arts hearing my music premiered by real musicians for pretty much the first (legit) time, and I can’t wait to return to the space for another premiere with Constellation Men’s Ensemble (CME).
The first premiere I have this Ear Taxi with CME is October 4th at Logan Center (Penthouse) from 4-5pm (there are two acts before starting as early as 2pm that I highly suggest you go to!). CME commissioned me to write a piece I titled “empty cup” for their first program of their 12th season, “pouring from empty cups”, a program that “explores resilience, vulnerability, and identity.”
[By the way, if you can’t make it to this premiere, CME is doing the same program the day before, October 3rd (Friday), at a different venue/time].
The text I decided to set for the work is Crystal Jackson’s poem entitled Thoughts Fueled by Wine & Silence. It’s an emotional, dark, and beautifully-written poem that delves deep into the psyche of someone who feels they have nothing left to give. Crystal is a former therapist, author, and poet who’s work I came to know through her publishing on Medium.com (I used to blog there frequently). I’ve since connected with her and so glad she let me use this heartfelt poem for this piece!
The premiere with CME is also a full-circle moment for me. CME gave me my second commission ever (and first work ever writing for voices) with Humanhood, so I’m beyond honored and excited to have returned to write for a group I’ve always wanted to work with again, but this time as a more experienced composer 🙂
The second premiere I have at Ear Taxi is my piece, “grace”, for the chamber ensemble Lakeshore Rush. The premiere is October 16th @ Constellation (the venue, not to be confused with the ensemble I’ve been talking about haha), from 8:30-10:30pm.
This piece is part of the Composer Showcase for Ear Taxi, in which 25 composers were selected to write a new work for one of five ensembles (of our choosing) paired with a vocalist of our choosing (fitting the theme of this year’s Ear Taxi, “The Composer’s Voice”).
I’m truly thrilled to have the opportunity to not only write for a group I’ve loooong wanted to write for (fun fact: the first time I saw Lakeshore Rush was at the same venue where CME premiered Humanhood, so many connections!), but I’m also setting the poem entitled “grace” by Joy Harjo!
If you don’t know Joy, she is poet, playwright, musician, and author. She is the first Native American poet to have served as the US as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate from 2019 to 2022, and one of the few to have served three terms.
She’s a BIG deal, and I’m just ecstatic we worked something out where I can use the poem. Drawn from her 1990 collection In Mad Love and War, “Grace” weaves memory, hardship, and survival through rich imagery of wind, winter, animals, and laughter. The music mirrors these moments—stanza by stanza—shifting from tension to soaring lyricism, reflecting Harjo’s experience as a Native woman navigating dispossession and resilience, ultimately discovering “grace” as a fragile promise of hope and balance.
While I can’t relate to Harjo’ s exact experiences of struggle growing up as a Native American woman in the Midwest and being among the first Native writers to be accepted into Iowa’s famed MFA program (along with her friend, Darlene “Wind”, to which the poem is addressed to), the poem resonated with me as an African-American, also having come from dispossessed people, sometimes finding myself navigating the ” stubborn memory” Harjo and Wind did in search for grace. My hope is that this work honors her poem and vision, inviting reflection to listeners, and hopefully comfort and optimism for a better future, a future in which we all think and extend more grace to others.
One more thing (speaking of full-circle): the voice I decided to write for is soprano, and I chose to work with the AMAZING Angela De Venuto, the same vocalist who sung so beautifully on my work A Stone of Hope (Martin’s Song) two years ago 🙂
Hope to see you you all on the 4th and 16th this Ear Taxi!! And please do check out as many of the wonderful musicians, composers, ensembles, and venues you can happening all around the city as part of the festival from October 3rd-November 2nd!
