What a spring it’s been! The projects I announced in the last post are almost reaching completion. I’m writing this in the midst of listening to the final cuts of my dance suite for AtticRep’s “From the Mahabharata: The Great Dance-Off” – the music was recorded by the incredible SOLI Chamber Ensemble and Aditya Kalyanpur (tabla). The production will run from June 4-13 in San Antonio, and from what I’ve been seeing, it looks like it will be awesome! To purchase tickets for the production, click here.
I’m also just finishing up the instrumental parts for my 45-minute work for Pasadena Master Chorale called Earth Speaks. Each of the three sections of the piece looks at our earth through a different Pasadena-based lens: Part I sets modern Tongva poetry, (the Native Americans who live in the specific area that is now Pasadena), and explores the issues they face in today’s changing world, both natural and human. Part II uses information and text from the US Geological Survey, based in Pasadena, along with the poetry of California poet Brenda Hillman to depict the seven biggest earthquakes in California history. And Part III (which has already been premiered by PMC) is about Curiosity, the Mars rover created and deployed by JPL, which is based in Pasadena. It uses the map of stops Curiosity has made along its path as well as texts from an online haiku competition on the topic of the Mars rover to depict the human journey to Mars, and our impressions of the red planet. I’m excited for the premier, which will be on June 29th in Pasadena at CalTech!