Migrate (2025)

“I wanted to write a work about the beautiful cultural differences when experiencing other countries, focusing on the juxtaposition between the natural and industrial rhythms and melodies a city may perform” Thousands of animals including birds, whales, fish, and sea turtles migrate. They move from their home to another for safety, food, and community. People migrate for similar reasons. Migrate is a rhapsody depicting the experiences of traveling; the freedom of exploration, the adjustment to new environments, and the memories of what once was. This piece is a reflection on the importance and courage it takes to take that step to leave. Migration is a natural part of life and should be celebrated, not shunned.

As the Jon Deak First Music Grand Prize Winner for Chamber Music, the New York Youth Symphony & Interlochen Center for the Arts commission Jackson A. Waters for his new piano quartet, Migrate. The commission includes a premiere at Carnegie Hall on May 4, 2026 with Emerge125 and an additional premiere at Interlochen Center for the Arts. The Jon Deak First Music Program “commissions America’s best emerging orchestra, chamber music, and jazz composers under the age of 30.” “First Music composers have been recognized with 12 Rome Prizes, 16 Guggenheim Fellowships, two Grawemeyer Awards, and four Pulitzer Prizes.”

Performed by the New York Youth Symphony's Luminé Quartet & Emerge125

Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall

May 4, 2026

(Any footsteps/non-musical noises are from the choreography from Emerge125)