Before you were born (2023)

Instrumentation: piccolo/alto flute, soprano/baritone saxophone, accordion, piano, violin, and cello

Written for and premiered by Schallfeld Ensemble as a part of Klangspuren Schwaz Composers Lab 2023

Duration: 12’

Program note:

'Before you were born' seeks to explore the feelings of my childhood. As adults, childhood can become an idealized, sweet memory, where life seemed simpler and easier, but children are also extremely sensitive, able to sense darkness in a visceral way. 'Before you were born' tries to capture this tension. Simple, naive material is revealed to have a darker side lurking just below it. At times, we turn away from the darkness, but it is always there. The sweetness and the darkness need one another; their copresence is how we begin to tell the whole story.