I’ve received word from Tiffany Ng that she’ll be performing my carillon work, Resonant Memories, during her faculty recital as part of the 59th Annual University of Michigan Organ Conference on September 30 in Ann Arbor.  The theme of the conference is “Building Bach: His Foundations and Futures.”  My work, which Tiffany premiered in 2018, fits into this program because of the contrapuntal aspect of much of the piece.  As I wrote in a revised program note for this performance:

“One of J. S. Bach’s many musical “magic tricks”, especially in works for solo instruments, is the way he crafts a single musical line to imply two or more independent voices, or what is often called compound melody.  This sense of lines being woven together and apart, of going in and out of sync, is one of the marvelous qualities of his work.  In imagining my first composition for carillon, I found myself returning again and again to these woven melodies, as well as the ephemeral quality of the instrument’s sound.  No matter how large or powerful the initial attack–whether single note or complex chord–it instantly began to fade away.  There was an aspect of inevitable disappearance that I found intriguing and that suggested a certain musical character I wanted to explore.”

I’m so pleased Tiffany has programmed the piece again and look forward to hearing it person sometime soon.