2018 has been an exciting year for me, musically. The year started off with a bang when Portland’s premier new music ensemble, Fear No Music, chose my piece, Burning Foliage, to play in their fourth Locally Sourced Sounds concert on January 8th. Joël Belgique on viola and Jeff Payne on piano gave a moving performance of the piece, bringing out things that I didn’t even know were in it. I felt honored that they asked me to speak about the piece at a second performance at Portland’s Univeristy Club on January 30th.
In February, my Five Canons for two violas had a tuneful premiere at a house concert in Lake Oswego with Sharon Eng and Shelley Mathewson on violas. My string trio, Glimpses, had its second performance at the Cascadia Composers’ Fabulous February Fantasia concert. Many thanks to Tatiana Kolchanova, Julie Asparro and Collin Oldham for making my music come alive.
In March, the Con Grazia Wind Quintet played my quintet Equinox with great verve as part of the March Music Moderne concert series at Portland’s Community Music Center. Thank you, Victoria Racz, Rebecca Olson, Jill Coykendall, Wendy Peebles and Danielle Goldman.
In April, as a lark, I signed up for a 48 hour composition contest organized by The Sound of Late. When I signed up, I didn’t know that I would be performing as well as composing. I played the cello part in my 48-hour composition Nocturne for Flute and Cello, and in three other pieces, a week after they were composed. Many thanks to Mike van Liew for coming to my rescue and playing the flute part for my piece when the original flute player was unable to be there!