AKSHAYA AVRIL TUCKER
COMPOSER

Program Note:

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Asleep, with waves of rest and restlessness, my imagination takes over. Where can I travel, what laws of physics can I break tonight? As a kid, I used to have a recurring dream. It was generally a bit lucid; I had some degree of control. I would walk out to the front yard of our house in Western Massachusetts - an expansive grassy incline with tall trees on either side. I jumped. My body flew up and was suspended high in the air, just above the tree tops. Then I'd fall slowly down to earth, and I'd try to repeat this over and over... This idea: the will to propel yourself upwards, and gravity slowly pulling you down... This gesture is what the piece describes. Sometimes, magically, we are suspended even longer in the air, a bird's eye view. Flying.

 

Integrating North Indian violin/cello techniques with Western classical techniques was a way to explore this dream space, using fluid glissandos, improvisation, chromaticism... This is truly an unknown, imaginative world. Many thanks to Jake Charkey for his in-depth, creative contributions to this work.

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