From Century to Century (2021)
For solo soprano
Duration: c. 22 minutes
World premiere: May 23, 2021
Soapbox Gallery, Brooklyn (livestream with reduced live audience)
Sophie Delphis, Zen Wu, Emily Solo, and Stephanie Lamprea, voice
This is most likely my most bizarre piece to date. A setting of period texts related to the 1893 World’s Fair, it funnels an overview and tour of the fair, the rambling pronouncements of a devoted enthusiast, and various advertisements through the filter of a malfunctioning animatronic robot. My sense of the work is that it can be experienced a bit like an archeological dig—presented with fragments, the task is to piece together not only a continuity of what occurred, but also a sense of who the people were and what shaped their values. Given the time period that these words were written—and who they were written for—there is much to be gleaned.
I wrote this for sopranos Emily Solo, Zen Wu, and Stephanie Lamprea, and mezzo-soprano Sophie Delphis. Although it’s intended to be a solo work, the world premiere, part of a livestream recital from Soapbox Gallery on May 23, 2021, divided the music between each of the singers for a joint performance.