3/23/2021, Auer Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington IN
Andrew Forsythe, bass voice
Daixuan Ai, piano

Text:

ode to the flute
by Ross Gay

A man sings
by opening his
mouth a man
sings by opening
his lungs by
turning himself into air
a flute can
be made of a man
nothing is explained
a flute lays
on its side
and prays a wind
might enter it
and make of it
at least
a small final song


_______________________________________



ode to drinking water from my hands
by Ross Gay

which today, in the garden,
I’d forgotten
I’d known and more
forgotten
I’d learned and was taught this
by my grandfather
who, in the midst of arranging
and watering
the small bouquets
on mostly the freshest graves
saw my thirst
and cranked the rusty red pump
bringing forth
from what sounded like the gravelly throat
of an animal
a frigid torrent
and with his hands made a lagoon
from which he drank
and then I drank
before he cranked again
making of my hands, now,
a fountain in which I can see
the silty bottom
drifting while I drink
and drink and
my grandfather waters the flowers
on the graves
among which are his
and his wife’s
unfinished and patient, glistening
after he rinses the bird shit
from his wife’s
and the pump exhales
and I drink
to the bottom of my fountain
and join him
in his work.

_________________________________________


Wedding Poem
by Ross Gay
for Keith and Jen

Friends I am here to modestly report
seeing in an orchard
in my town
a goldfinch kissing
a sunflower
again and again
dangling upside down
by its tiny claws
steadying itself by snapping open
like an old-timey fan
its wings
again and again,
until, swooning, it tumbled off
and swooped back to the very same perch,
where the sunflower curled its giant
swirling of seeds
around the bird and leaned back
to admire the soft wind
nudging the bird’s plumage,
and friends I could see
the points on the flower’s stately crown
soften and curl inward
as it almost indiscernibly lifted
the food of its body
to the bird’s nuzzling mouth
whose fervor
I could hear from
oh 20 or 30 feet away
and see from the tiny hulls
that sailed from their
good racket,
which good racket, I have to say
was making me blush,
and rock up on my tippy-toes,
and just barely purse my lips
with what I realize now
was being, simply, glad,
which such love,
if we let it,
makes us feel

wedding poem

ode to drinking water from my hands

ode to the flute

8 Memories In Watercolor By Tan Dun
5. Red Wilderness

Baldwin Wallace University Con

8 Memories In Watercolor - 5. Red Wilderness

Performers:
Chloe Wehner, violin I
Nathan Thommer, violin II
Colin Henley, viola
Faith Rohde, cello

String Quartet No. 1

Recorded at my 2018 fall semester piano jury.

Bright Sheng-My Song (for solo piano)
I.
II.

Bright Sheng-My Song (I,II)

Fresh Inc Festival 2019
Bedford Hall, Parkside University, Kenosha WI

Violin: Eric Mrugala
Viola: Sixto Franco
Cello: Tyla Axelrod
Piano: Eunjin Lee

Fugue And Noises (for Piano Quartet)

19 September 2019
Baldwin Wallace Conservatory Convocation
Gamble Auditorium
Berea, OH

Ballade No. 2 In F Major, Op. 38

Premiere: 
26 April 2019
Baldwin Wallace Ovation Festival--Composer's Forum Concert
Gamble Auditorium, Berea OH

Baldwin Wallace Symphonic Orchestra
Conductor: Soo Han

My Father's Tale (for full orchestra)

06 Dec 2019 Baldwin Wallace Symphonic Wind Ensemble Concert, Gamble Auditorium, Berea OH

Conductor: Daixuan Ai
Performers:
Evan Fraser & Brandon Landry, flute
Katie Winkler, oboe
Emily Ewing & Justin Michael O'Tool, clarinet
Andrew Buckley, alto saxophone
Katie Kovacs, bassoon
Blaine Schultice, horn

Octet For Wind

29 Oct Kenosha Creative Space, WI
Hub New Music
Michael Avitabile, flute
David Dziardziel, clarinet
Alyssa Wang, violin
Jesse Christeson, cello

Daixuan Ai

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