wint'ring

I wrote this piece watching birds fly south from my 11th floor window. In Midwestern America, specifically under the Mississippi Flyway, early winter bird migration means that we get to see species that don’t often come around—often some interesting waterfowl flocks coming all the way from northern Canada, the Hudson Bay, and even Greenland. This year brought a plethora of swans, geese, and many other birds I don’t have the ability to recognize. It makes sense why so many indigenous American musical traditions imitate/evoke birds (Inuk katajjaq, Kumeyaay ashaa takook, Andean sikuri, etc.). Watching these birds fly by in their long formations, I became quite enamored with the sounds I was hearing. They made their way into this piece, and a scene emerged—a soft winter horizon of snow, dried-up trees, pale-blue skies, and, of course, migrating birds.

Commissioned by Overtuned Fest and premiered at its Inaugural 2026 Edition

with video by Courage Barda