Text by e.e. cummings

Bass-baritone: Jacob Heacock
Piano: Max Eidinoff

Twilight Dreams (i will wade out)

Text by Max Eidinoff

Soprano: Clara Kelly
Piano: Max Eidinoff

That Simple Day

Text by Guillaume Apollinaire

Mezzo–soprano: Ashton Worley
Piano: Arin Shahjahanian

Signe

Text by Rahzé Cheatham

I. Malachi
II. Chana
III. Jo

Baritone (Malachi): Rahzé Cheatham
Soprano (Chana): Elisheva Pront
Soprano (Jo): Christina O'Malley
Piano: Hui–Chuan Chen

Deliberate, Afraid of Nothing

SATB Choir a cappella

Peabody Conservatory NEXT Ensemble, Beth Willer, Conductor


Awakening at Dawn is the surrealist inspired poem written by Rahzé Cheatham for our second collaboration. When I first received the poem, I was most struck by the mention of looking out through a window. Just a week prior I had seen the Edward Hopper exhibition at the Whitney Museum. Seeing his work made me acutely aware of windows as looking glasses into various private spheres of life as well as the idea of exploring fantasy within the typically mundane. I came across Hopper’s Cape Cod Morning which became my visual inspiration for setting the first stanza of Rahzé’s poem. The emphasis on a subject beyond the canvas which the painting’s figure is captivated by also became influential in how I approached the rest of the poem. My goal was to embody this awe-inspiring feeling of seeing “it...There, far in the distance” through a mix of improvisatory, bubbling gestures and concretely notated harmonies.

Awakening at Dawn

Peabody Conductors' Orchestra
Ryo Hasegawa, conductor

I am continually fascinated by the severity of my food allergies. There is, of course, nothing innately dangerous about a peanut, yet no amount of willpower can prevent my eventual suffocation after consuming one. Only an injection of epinephrine can provide the virtually instantaneous relief which restores my lungs to stable oxygen intake. Anaphylaxis portrays both the physical and psychological sensations I experience during a severe allergic reaction. The piece mirrors the cyclical exchange between increasingly strong waves of shortness of breath and anxiety. Obviously, I never eat anything that I already know contains peanuts or tree nuts. So when I feel even the faintest bit of itchiness, congestion, or dizziness I immediately worry that it is the result of something I ate. But it is not so easy to determine if these are the symptoms of an allergic reaction or an imagined response based on previous traumatic dining experiences. That is, not until the tightness in my chest lingers and becomes so unbearable that my anxiety turns to dread at the thought of my impending emergency room visit.

Anaphylaxis

Text by Jonathan Swift

Baritone – Robin McGinness
Piano – John Henderson

Jonathan Swift’s 1729 satirical essay “A Modest Proposal For preventing the Children of Poor People From being a Burthen to Their Parents or Country, and For making them Beneficial to the Publick” is shockingly contemporary in its allusions to a widespread lack of empathy between people of different socioeconomic backgrounds. Swift is clearly responding to a popular sentiment by the rich that they are bothered by homeless people begging for money, as well as their tendency to generalize that all poor people are thieves. Along the way, he also touches on interconnected issues such as abortion and domestic violence. In the excerpts of text I have chosen, I have excluded any mention of Ireland or the 18th century in order to better highlight the similarities with present day America. In this musical setting, the speaker is framed as a demagogue fully embodying all the hyperbolic and rapid mood shifts existing in the text, who radiates pride at having created the perfect solution to save their “great country.”

A Modest Proposal

Performed by Le Quatuor Béla

Fluttering ornamentations imbue sustained harmonies with life, bursting stasis apart with nervous excitement. High frequencies swarm the ear, meandering through the air. And muted strings soar like voices, ascending towards an ethereal realm.

dans la sonorité scintillante



kairosclerosis

n. the moment you realize that you’re currently happy—consciously trying to savor the feeling—which prompts your intellect to identify it, pick it apart and put it in context, where it will slowly dissolve until it’s little more than an aftertaste.

– The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

July 19, 2025 – Princeton University Richardson Auditorium
New Jersey Symphony – New Scores: The Cone Institute Concert
Christopher Rountree, conductor
Steven Mackey, institute director & host

Kairosclerosis

Written for the Voix Nouvelles Academy – Fondation Royaumont
Sound recording : Caroline Christiaens

Poem by Irène Gayraud

Sophie Collin, soprano
Margaux Loire, soprano
Parveen Savart, soprano
Sophia Stern, soprano
Gabriel-Ange Brusson, countertenor
Marie Brendle, contralto
Peyee Chen, soprano
Susanne Leitz-Lorey, soprano
Daniel Gloger, countertenor
Martin Nagy, tenor
Guillermo Anzorena, baritone
Andreas Fischer, bass


Les tournesols grillent sur pied.

On entend
le froissement de leur tige sèche
quand leur tête s'affaisse.

Il est tellement plus facile
de faire semblant de ne pas entendre
tellement plus facile
de ne pas leur répondre.

Avec un peu d'entraînement on parvient très bien
à ne plus rien écouter.

Les tournesols grillent sur pied

Theme and 5 variations on a melody from an Eric Andre skit.

Time To Deliver A Pizza Ball

Max Eidinoff is a composer, improviser, and educator whose music is marked by creative audacity and dramatic flair.

Max Eidinoff

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