Musical works

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Krystina and Juan Sebastian, of Stick & Bow, for a decade. We have worked together in many capacities and configurations – on my music and that of others – in dramatic live performances, intense recording sessions, and even music for silent film. Steeped is my first work for Stick & Bow as a duo, and I was inspired by something that seems impossible: Can I create a piece in which the marimba and cello, two instruments that could not be more different from each other, are melded into one organism, one complicated sound world in which both musicians are heard in ways that cross polinate and grow out of each other? 

Beginning very simply, the piece opens into a tremulous world with pizzicato and struck commentary. Expanding into more lyrical expression, the instruments trade and weave melody and accompaniment together, blurring the lines of leader and follower. A frenzied circularity ensues, then quietens, returning us to the tremolo world of the opening before crescendoing toward an ecstatic ending. Throughout, we are invited to delight in the interwoven complexity of these instruments and this duo, so steeped in each others’ resonance, artistry and humanity.