Chamber music for a mad world and a young public, for mixed ensemble (2007)
Written for the Fireworks Ensemble
Premiere: February 2008, Eugene OR

Live recording, February 28 2008
Beall Concert Hall, Eugene OR
Scott J. Ordway, conductor

Note

THIS MUSIC was written to belong to a world of listeners who have not really been listening for very long at all. Those of us who love new music in the early twenty-first century are hearing with new ears, looking for great art in new places, and creating our own contexts for music-making; in this sense, we are the youngest public, and we have just begun to awaken to a changed world of art in society. At the same time, ours is an epoch of unprecedented fear, uncertainty, and madness, but we will not react to it by shattering our own art to match. Instead, we will make things that are strong, beautiful, athletic, and brutal. We will make art to which the world can aspire, not art from which to retreat, or in which to hide. Chamber music for a mad world and a young public is music to live with, and music to rely upon, and music to enjoy.