Program Note:

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From the beginning to… grew out of conversations over the phone with Brianna about her project: Tremor, which explores her experience of essential tremor through piano, visual art, and multimedia. These conversations were deeply inspiring and led me to reflect on Brianna’s condition and the concept of vibration.

 

I associate vibration with movement, pulsation, the state of being alive, and our interaction with the surrounding world, both physically and spiritually. For me, vibration is the foundation of life. As a blind composer, I perceive the world most fully through sound, and therefore through vibration. While writing this work, I also reflected on string theory as a possible basis of our existence.

 

The structure of the piece reflects my artistic interpretation of various visions of the origin and development of life. It is a sonic journey from an unknown, abstract past to the threshold of the present moment, with an open gaze toward an as-yet-unknown future. The work also offers a personal interpretation of motherhood and childhood: life begins in the womb, the child is born and gradually discovers the surrounding world, and the parent eventually releases the child into an unknown future.

 

The live piano represents a living being interacting with its surroundings, while the fixed electronics embody the surrounding world itself.