VERGe (2010)

I spent most of my summer living on Lake Champlain in upstate New York. I had just finished graduate school and moved out of my New Haven apartment with only the haziest plans for moving to Brooklyn in the fall. Future work and apartment, however, remained unknown. The beauty and calm of my lakeside life was in direct opposition to the uncertainty of my future and the stress of being in transition from student to non-student life. The tension between these two extremes found its way into my piece. Both the lapping of the waves and the sense of being on the verge of some unknown change can be heard throughout. The music begins with a simple undulating motive and approaches successive climaxes always cutting short before any kind of resolution. Finally, we are left in a new but equally unresolved place going somewhere but never quite arriving.

This piece was commissioned by the New York Youth Symphony through their First Music commissioning program and premiered December 5, 2010 by Ryan McAdams and the New York Youth Symphony with Anthony McGill as soloist at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY.

Performance materials for this piece are available for hire.

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March 3, 2015 Hamman Hall, Missouri State University, Springfield, MO. MSU Symphony Orchestra, Allison Storochuk, Clarinet.

December 5, 2010 Carnegie Hall, New York, NY. New York Youth Symphony, Ryan McAdams conductor, Anthony McGill, Clarinet.

November 21, 2010 Colden Auditorium, Queens College, Queens, NY. New York Youth Symphony, Ryan McAdams conductor, Anthony McGill, Clarinet.