3/3/2025
Mason Symphony Orchestra
Dr. Soo Han, conductor
Center for the Arts at George Mason University

Water Sings Fire for Orchestra (2018) was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program. Carlos Miguel Prieto conducted the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra for the premiere performances at the Orpheum Theatre in New Orleans, Louisiana in January 2019.

The piece draws inspiration from Leigh Bardugo’s short story, When Water Sang Fire – a feminist origin myth to the Hans Christian Andersen classic, The Little Mermaid – in which themes of ambition and betrayal are explored allegorically through Ulla’s transformation from obscure mermaid to tempestuous sea witch. 

With nimble precision, Ulla manipulates the mer-music’s magical properties - a show of power irresistible to an ambitious prince whose lack of natural talent drives his relentless pursuit of the throne. In the end, Ulla’s ability to transform wishes into reality rewards the treachery of the young prince, and it costs her everything. 

The loss of her voice, friend, and form illustrate the degradation of her true source of personal power. Desperate to survive, Ulla uses a magical mirror to amplify her weakened voice with the support of “all these broken, betrayed girls” reflected in the mirror. Together, they build a song of storm magic to pull apart the prince’s ill-begotten prize. 

Bardugo writes that following Ulla’s descent, she clutches her memories, and “…held each sorrow like a chafing grain of sand, and grew her grudges like pearls.” 

While this piece does not strictly adhere to the narrative arc of the story, its episodic form strings together grievances, while Ulla, who frets in the deep, waits for the “lonely, the ambitious, the clever, the frail, for all those willing to strike a bargain. She never waits long.” 

Like the story, the sparse textures of the opening moments conjure the barren lands stripped of life by Ulla’s storm, and slowly builds with the sorrow of each painful memory re-lived. The themes resonate with societal changes that challenge our nation ­– as we strive to give voice to the wronged and the disenfranchised. The work is dedicated, with hope and with gratitude, to “women who sing truth though the world rains fire upon them.” Duration ca. 12:00

— Notes by Andrea Reinkemeyer and Kate Verotsky

Andrea Reinkemeyer: Water Sings Fire for Orchestra (2018) - LIVE

Four Poems for Robin for Soprano and Viola (1999)
Gary Snyder, poet / Andrea Reinkemeyer, composer
Mary Bonhag, soprano / Alexis Bacon, viola

A Spring Night in Shokoku-ji

Eight years ago this May
We walked under cherry blossoms
At night in an orchard in Oregon.
All that I wanted then
Is forgotten now, but you.
Here in the night
In a garden of the old capital
I feel the trembling ghost of Yugao
I remember your cool body
Naked under a summer cotton dress.

A spring night in Shokoku-ji

Red Pine by Kristin Kuster played live at the University of Michigan Museum of Art by the Adamas Saxophone Quartet as a part of the Composing a Space concert, celebrating women composers with performances of the music of Kristin Kuster and Roshanne Etezady.

Soprano Saxophone-Russell Kerns
Alto Saxophone-Connor Mikula
Tenor Saxophone-Jonathan Hostottle
Baritone Saxophone-Jeffrey Leung

Kristin Kuster-Red Pine

String Quintet, performed by CMW Players, 2006

Strum

The Gorgeous Nothings (2016) for Soprano, Flute, Oboe and Piano
Texts: Emily Dickinson - fragments
Live Performance:
Sarah Tannehill Anderson, Soprano
Annie Gnojek, Flute
Margaret Marco, Oboe
Ellen Sommer, Piano

I. Clogged Only With Music 

Clogged
only with
Music, like
the Wheels of
Birds -

Afternoon and 
the West and
the gorgeous
nothings
which
compose
the 
sunset
keep
their high 
appointment


II. In This Short Life  

In this short Life
that only  (merely) lasts an hour 
How much – how 
little – is
within our
power


III.  Paradise Is No Journey 

Paradise is no Journey
because it he is within -
but for that very cause
though - it is the
most arduous of
Journeys - because as
the servant conscientiously
says at the Door
we are out -
always - invariably –


IV. The Little Sentences 

The little
sentences
I begun
and never
finished -
the little
wells I dug and
never
filled –


V. It Is Very Still 

It is very still in the
world now - Thronged
only with Music, like the

Decks of
Birds -

and the Seasons
take their hushed
places like figures
in a Dream -



Program Notes: “The Gorgeous Nothings” takes its title and inspiration from the facsimile publication of Emily Dickinson's complete envelope writings edited by Marta L. Werner  and Jen Bervin.  These beautiful fragments range from completed, self-contained short poems to mere thoughts hastily expressed on scraps of paper.  I was drawn to these sketches as they seem to give us a glimpse into Dickinson’s creative process.  Also, perhaps because of their very nature of incompleteness, the fragments allow the reader to engage in new ways with Dickinson’s words. It is my hope that the music captures these wonderfully suggestive aspects of the fragments.

Permission to use “Clogged Only With Music “granted by Harvard University Press. THE LETTERS OF EMILY DICKINSON, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, Associate Editor, Theodora Ward, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1958 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © renewed 1986 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © 1914, 1924, 1932, 1942 by Martha Dickinson Bianchi. Copyright © 1952 by Alfred Leete Hampson. Copyright ©1960 by Mary L. Hampson.

Permission to use “In This Short Life “granted by Harvard University Press. THE POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1951, 1955 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © renewed 1979, 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © 1914, 1918, 1919, 1924, 1929, 1930, 1932, 1935, 1937, 1942, by Martha Dickinson Bianchi. Copyright © 1952, 1957, 1958, 1963, 1965, by Mary L. Hampson.

Permission to use “Paradise Is No Journey,” “The Little Sentences” and “It Is Very Still“granted by Harvard University Press. THE LETTERS OF EMILY DICKINSON, edited by Thomas H. Johnson, Associate Editor, Theodora Ward, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1958 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © renewed 1986 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © 1914, 1924, 1932, 1942 by Martha Dickinson Bianchi. Copyright © 1952 by Alfred Leete Hampson. Copyright ©1960 by Mary L. Hampson.

The Gorgeous Nothings for Soprano, Flute, Oboe and Piano

Voices:
Julia Cordani, Jessie Downs, Helen Lowry, Ethan Hayden, Brien Henderson

Instruments:
Joshua Rosner - guitar
Caitlin Mehrtens - harp
Noelle Marty - double bass
Justin Gunter - percussion
Ben Rempel - percussion

Broadloom - Kala Pierson

for uilleann pipes and string quartet aka the brilliant Pádraic Keane and ConTempo Quartet!

something like light but not (string quartet and uilleann pipes)

Abigail Sperling, flute
Auckland Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Peter Scholes

Recorded by Radio New Zealand, Tim Dodd and Adrian Hollay

Flute Concerto

I.         Reflex
II.        Beams
III.       Crank
IV.       Catch
V.        Throw

​Commissioned by and written for Aether Eos (Leah Asher, violin; Christopher Goddard, piano), In-pulse is a collection of character pieces; each of them captures the essence of a type of movement or concept. The collection is unified by a central idea of extreme contrast between maintaining and disrupting a constant pulse. A pulse, in these pieces, is loosely defined as a repeated rhythmic pattern.

In-pulse

A guided meditation for all those...SPECIAL people in our lives...

They F%cking Suck - A Guided Meditation

Ando: light against shade

The music of American composer Andrea Reinkemeyer has been described as, “haunting,” “clever, funky, jazzy and virtuosic” (Detroit Free Press, Schenectady Daily Gazette); it explores the intersection of the visual, aural and natural worlds through lush melodic lines and textures teeming with new timbres and churning rhythmic figures.

Ms. Reinkemeyer is a free-lance composer and member of the ADJ•ective Composers' Collective. She has enjoyed recent commissions from: Rodney Dorsey for the University of Oregon Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Choir, Lacroute Arts Series at Linfield College, In Mulieribus, Albany (NY) Symphony Orchestra, H. Robert Reynolds and The Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings, Jeffrey Heisler for the Primary Colors Trio, Miller Asbill and the Texas Tech University Concert Band, The Wild Swan Theater, Iowa Music Teachers’ Association, Kyle Acuncius, Natalie Haworth-Liu, Jay Bordeleau, Alan Huckleberry, Tayva Singer, and Kathryn Hallor, artists Carol Jacobsen and Patricia Olynyk. Upcoming commissioned projects include: a new work for women's vocal ensemble.

Her music has been performed both nationally and internationally, by the American Composers Orchestra Underwood New Music Readings, North-South Chamber Orchestra, The Fire Wire Ensemble, Great Noise Ensemble, Thailand International Composition Festival, the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra and Concert Band, Northern Arizona University Percussion Ensemble, Pacific Rim Gamelan, and new music ensembles at: Bowling Green State University, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and Susquehanna University. Her electroacoustic compositions have been performed on the SEAMUS Conference, Spark Electronic Music Festival, University of Central Missouri New Music Festival, Electronic Music Midwest Festival, and Threshold Electronic Music Festival. Her music has also received recognition from the International Alliance of Women in Music. The A/B Duo recorded her piece, "Wrought Iron" on their release Variety Show on Aerocade Records.

Dr. Reinkemeyer enjoys exploring music with students of all ages. She is an Assistant Professor of Music Composition & Theory at Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon (2014-). Previously, she served as a Part-time Lecturer in the Mahidol University International College, in Salaya, Thailand (2011-12) and as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Composition, Theory and Technology at Bowling Green State University, Ohio (2005-10). Reinkemeyer has been the Composer-in-Residence with the: Michigan Philharmonic’s, “The Composer in Me!” education pilot program (2010-11), American-Romanian Festival’s Fusion Project (2011), and Burns Park Elementary School (2004, 2005, 2010). She has mentored public school students through outreach programs with the Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings (2007) and Michigan Mentorship Program (2002, 2004). Her work with young musicians has been supported by a Meet the Composer/MetLife Creative Connections Grant.

Reinkemeyer holds degrees in music composition from the University of Michigan (MM 2001, DMA 2005) and University of Oregon (BM 1999). Her primary composition teachers include: Michael Daugherty, Bright Sheng, Evan Chambers, Susan Botti, James Aikman, Robert Kyr, Jack Boss and Harold Owen. While a student, her work was recognized with a Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, Regents’ Fellowship, Christine Rinaldo Memorial Scholarship, Graduate Student Instructor position in electronic music composition, the Ruth Lorraine Close Musical Fellows and Outstanding Creativity in Composition Award.

A native Oregonian, she has also lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan and Bangkok, Thailand.

Andrea Reinkemeyer: Water Sings Fire for Orchestra (2018) - LIVE

Andrea Reinkemeyer

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