On my 4th try, I managed to win an audition to play with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada for the summer of 2022, their first in-person season since the orchestra toured Canada and Spain in 2019. And, with the support of wonderful mentors, I was commissioned to write a chamber piece for our summer residency in Kingston, Ontario.
With that context, Haywire is a piece about anticipation. The giddy period between offer acceptance in March and the end of the academic year in April spent thinking about the approaching summer, followed by the frenetic mania spent practicing chamber repertoire in May and June ahead of the NYO start date. In a normal year, the anticipation for a summer program like this would be considerable, but after such a drought of live musicmaking between 2019 and now, this anticipation reached new heights.
Haywire invokes references to the monumental repertoire of NYO Canada of Summer 2022; Strauss’s Don Juan, Brahms’s Symphony 4, and others. The piece captures the excitement, nervousness, energy, and jubilation I have been feeling these last two months, ahead of what promises to be an inspiring and memorable summer session.
Premiered July 2, 2022 by Calum Crosbie, Samuel Kerr, Fraser Krips, and Jacob Kryger
Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, Kingston
With gracious thanks to Ryan and John for enabling this project,
to Nick, Fraser, Jacob, and Calum for suffering through some extended rehearsals,
and to Chris and NYO Canada for supporting me and my music.
12 сен 2024
