PROGRAM NOTES

Over crackling digital white noise drift textures from three musical ensembles, strewn across a dark space. Cold string harmonics and percussion, muted brass chords, and plaintive woodwinds: these isolated elements float in a primeval emptiness. Barely recognizable fragments of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy drift through the soundworld, which has a muffled perspective akin to deafness.

But like microbes in a primordial soup, these elements begin swirling together. The digital crackles – sound samples from today’s online communication platforms – coalesce into a quiet rhythm, while the ensembles’ ambient clouds merge. Strings descend from the stratosphere into arpeggiations, brass and woodwind swells quicken their overlaps, and a soulful melody emerges that connects all elements. This slow-motion coming together, composed under challenging times for music and fellowship, is envisioned as an affirmation of human connection.