Is it Auburn? (2010)

A couple years ago a friend of mine received about 100 emails in error. They had been sent to a man with the same name as my friend and contained a meticulous record of every communication this person had sent or received within a popular online dating site. I found these emails to be hilarious, moving, and bizarre. Both the content and the strangeness of how they entered my life have led me to refer back to them again and again in my work. For these pieces I took the first line of two emails–Just please let me know and that’s all I ask from you, and Is it Auburn?–and composed musical responses to each statement. As much as possible I tried to imagine the emotional impetus for each email. Ultimately these pieces became a set of songs without words, each one underscoring the moment in which this unknown man composed his emails.

I composed these pieces for the Correction Line Ensemble’s November Canada tour.

Premiered November 16, 2010 The Great Hall, Toronto, Ontario, CA

October 4, 2022 Morton Hall, University of Alabama, Huntsville, AL. Rocket City New Music.

November 17, 2018 San Francisco Conservatory of Music, CA. Contemporary Music Ensemble.

February 27, 2017 Frederick Loewe Theater, New York University, New York, NY. Pulsing & Shaking.

March 25, 2016 FIU Miami Beach Urban Studios, Miami, FL. Nodus Ensemble.

November 6, 2015 Adam Holmes Senior Recital, New York University, New York, NY. Echo Chamber.

October 17, 2015 Scholes Street Studios, Brooklyn, NY. Echo Chamber.

June 19, 2015 Nief-Norf Festival, UT Knoxville, Knoxville, TN. Christopher Adler and Nief-Norf Fellows.

May 23, 2014 Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago, IL. Min Park, Liz Lee, Karl Larson, Owen Davis.

February 28, 2014 California State University at Northridge, Northridge, CA. TEMPO ensemble.

January 29, 2014 Barnes Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. New Morse Code, Xak Bjerken, Nick DiEugenio.