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Large Ensemble
2021
11 min.
Alto Saxophone
Baritone Saxophone
Bass Clarinet
Bass Trombone
Bassoon
Brass
Clarinet
Electric Organ
English Horn
Euphonium
Fixed Media Audio
Flute
Horn
Keyboards
Oboe
Other
Percussion
Piccolo
Pitched Percussion
Tenor Saxophone
Trombone
Trumpet
Unpitched Percussion
Winds
More Details
- Program Notes
- If you were like me, you had plans for 2020 that didn’t work out. For me, our new normal of Zoom meetings, constant deliveries, and strategized movements outside the house made my anxiety skyrocket and shut me down creatively. Ultimately, my rescue and the start of this piece did come. One day in late March, I stumbled upon an opinion article by retired NASA astronaut Scott Kelly entitled “I Spent a Year in Space, and I Have Tips on Isolation to Share.” He articulated what I had been searching for: beauty in isolation—a beautiful potential not from escape but from squarely confronting the present. The following months saw my creative revival. It also reawakened my childhood fascination with space exploration. I moved my eyes skyward as scientists from multiple countries were launching expeditions to study Mars. You will hear the sounds of the cosmos directly in this piece. It is a work meant to celebrate our collective accomplishments and our great if stressed-out ability to find beauty in our interconnected isolation.
- Recording Notes
- Live performance on October 21, 2021, by the Michigan State University Symphony Band in East Lansing, MI. David Thornton, conductor.