Go here for full program note, perusal score, and to purchase music: https://www.stephanieannboyd.com/songs-of-slumber

Rafael and I met in graduate school, and quickly realized that we shared the same birthday, in the same year. Every year we have at least one interaction - a hearty series of well-wishing and catching up on our birthdays. The work that truly solidified this beautiful friendship between birthday buddies was Opus 33, Songs of Slumber. From Rafael: 

 “I attended a performance of a piece saxophonist Stephanie Anne Munoz had commissioned in memory of her mother - the piece was so heartfelt and I’d been wanting to work with Stephanie Ann Boyd for some time, so asking her to write this set of pieces so close to my heart (which utilizes a text by my mother) seemed the perfect pairing.” 

Songs of Slumber is a set of three lullabies: one in French (anonymous children’s text), one in German (written by Rafael’s mother), and one in English, by poet Ken Gaertner. This set of lullabies will eventually grow to include lullabies in many languages.

I’m especially grateful to Mr. Gaertner for giving me carte blanche to work with his poetry. A former marine who marched in Selma for civil rights in the 1960s and became an award-winning playwright and poet in NYC in the 1980s, he became a co-worker of my father and as a young child I attended a concert of his poetry set to music, and decided that one day, when I was a “good enough” composer, I’d ask permission to set his poetry. At the end of undergraduate, I set a poems of his for my “Three Disparate Sisters” in 2013. And when Rafael asked for this collection of lullabies, I asked if I might work with one of Ken’s pieces for the American lullaby.

Songs Of Slumber | Tenor + Piano

Unsuk Chin (*1961): Piano Etude No. 6 "Grains" (2000)

Kim Rabenda, piano

Unsuk Chin: Piano Etude No. 6 "Grains" (2000) – Kim Rabenda (piano)

Night Visions

mosaic (2018)
for solo piano

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performed by andrea lodge @ the 2019 pulsing & shaking festival

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program notes: 

following the election of donald tr*mp and the ensuing socio-political trauma inflicted on US citizens (including myself), i was forced to think of all the categories of my identity (race, gender, sexuality, class) as interconnected parts that for the most part, could not be separate from each other. this piece is constructed of various ‘tesserae’ that are small cells, ideas or motives that are then repeated and/or expanded.

mosaic

COMMISSIONED BY RIVER OAKS CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

When flutist Brook Ferguson approached me with this commission for River Oak Chamber Orchestra's 18/19 season, we talked about the season's main theme: "Games People Play". Brooke and I had decided on some sort of celestial piece already, and this fit so well in that trying to figure out humanity's place among these huge bodies of rotating mass may be the ultimate game, just one we haven't quite won yet. Sapien takes its inspiration from slow, deep unknown of black holes, the possibilities brought to us by the Higgs Boson "God Particle", and in between, the beautiful and the delicate, the terrifying and the unknown of how our species and the others around us have made it quite this far. I'm so grateful to Brook, Alecia Lawyer, and the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra for commissioning this piece, and I hope you enjoy this ride throughout a part of a gorgeously intricate history (and future) that we still only have glimpses of.

ARTWORK BY SASHA PARFENOVA

Sapien | 4. The God Particle

Sapien | 3. Evolving

Sapien | 2. The Spark (of Life)

Sapien | 1. Meditation on Before

"Toccata" is the 5th Piano Etude written by Unsuk Chin. Check out my video performance on YouTube! You can also find my premier recording of this work in my latest album 'Musical Toys'. For more information, please click www.meiyifoo.com or follow me on twitter @MeiYiFoo

Thanks for listening,
Mei Yi

Mei Yi Foo plays Toccata by Unsuk Chin

Composed by Marco Giusto, 2014.
Recorded live by Robbie Padilla, 2018, at Park Central Presbyterian Church in Syracuse, NY.

Valzer Tristi, Nobili E Sentimentali, VII. Lento Assai (Giusto)

Robbie Padilla

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