Notes Vol. 5
in which we continue making the work
These past few months have been about trying things. I found a few minutes here and there to just try new ideas without the absolute need for them to be income-driven (aka my livelihood). I tried out a new configuration of ‘A Stone’s Throw’ collage/installation in Lakewood, CO that previously only people in Homer, Alaska saw. I really liked the little shadowbox they found for my stones from the beach.
I’m also designing a table for RedLine’s annual gala event featuring musical instruments in bondage, and I’m trying to build a strange rope suspension contraption in my studio for future projects (cue some kind of gay dungeon soundtrack, but make it classical).
I’ve also tried out some new music scores with short music examples that will be headed off to the Black Rock gallery inside Joshua Tree National Park this fall. Ideally every piece comes with a QR code so you can hear a short ‘realization’ of the image (even if very MIDI at the moment).
None of this work feels like my success as an artist is riding on that one thing. They feel like a chance to play, to make a study on something. Maybe I’m having a temporary reprieve from my usual self-doubt??
I do however also feel this theme of trying, as in: these are trying times. This semester I’m teaching music more than usual. My students are at times great, well-prepared, and curious; and also at times at their wit’s ends, trying to just keep above water. One student wrote me of a suicide attempt; another’s hospitalized for some infection; another warned of impending imprisonment for financial struggle. It’s hard to manage this whole spectrum of experiences and still encourage people to keep making their music. I feel quite lucky to have creative opportunities and a small amount of stability.
One thing I will not be just trying things out with is music for the Camille Pissarro blockbuster show at the Denver Art Museum this fall. I was asked to provide three music sections that play outside and in the galleries, one being a multi-channel piece in a creative space inside the exhibit. The DAM asked me to interpret ideas and themes of his life and work and respond in my own way. Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll be using some popular tonalities and musical gestures of the late 1800’s. But it will be fun to riff on “Impressionism” to hopefully make it feel as fresh as it once did. It’s a good reminder that painting colored dots on the canvas to represent light and objects was once revolutionary. Literal fist-fights broke out about it.
Posing as a “real artist” making a graphic score in my studio. Photo: Mark Woolcott.
Here’s some upcoming things if you find yourself mostly in Denver!
April 11: online chat with other pianists and composers for the Festival for Creative Pianists on my piece ‘The Garden, The Sea’ and music inspired by nature.
April 24: plug for my husband Andy who’s performing improv at Chaos Bloom—a rare chance for me to just be in the audience supporting and laughing. 7pm.
May 11: 12pm and 1pm: two performances of my work ‘Vessels’ for flute and singing bowls at Clyfford Still Museum. Presented by Friends of Chamber Music.
May 15: Lecture at Clyfford Still Museum with Kevin Williams, Botanic Gardens, and museum director Joyce Tsai: Sustaining Change in Living and Sonic Landscapes.
June 13: premiere of Til the End of Time for trumpet and smooth electronics jams, commissioned by Shane Courville. Part of Playground Ensemble’s Pride 2025.
June 14: Chime Pavilion installation at Adams County Pride, Broomfield, CO! 12-5pm.
Fall: stay tuned for a new album announcement in the coming months, working title “Greenland Diary”. Tracks now all recorded and getting sent for mixing.
Thanks for reading, and take care of yourselves and those most vulnerable around you!