Embers (2026)
- Commissioned by the Emerging Black Composers Project, an initiative of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Symphony, and made possible through the support of Laurence and Michèle Corash.
- With special thanks to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts for their generous fellowship residency that made completing this piece a possibility.
Program Notes:
The word embers may evoke a number of associations. The aftermath of a fire – dim, flickering, glowing, ashes that can be stoked back into something powerful and energized. Distant memories echoing into the present.
Embers focuses on a scenario involving the progress of a voice fighting to be heard. This voice, first heard in the first violins, works its way through every part of the orchestra and serves as the foundation of all of the musical materials heard in the piece. Each time it is heard, it tries asserting itself in new ways. The responses to these assertions vary from sharp cuts to long waves of sympathetic spinnings-out.
The scenario also reflects on the consequences of dwelling in the past and what happens when that past is brought into the present. This includes dim and almost grotesque recollections of romantic residue, explosive interferences, finding peace in the aftermath, rebellion, mocking of progress, breakthroughs of radiant triumph, persistence, and resonating uncertainty.