I’m very happy to have been awarded a General Research Fund (GRF) Grant from Hong Kong’s Research Grants Council to support research on the orchestral work of my former teacher, the late Steven Stucky.  The GRF Grant is the most significant and competitive grant for Hong Kong academics and will fund my two-year project, “Patterns of Influence: Steven Stucky as Orchestrator,” including archival work at the Library of Congress.

I first met Steve when I studied with him as an undergraduate at Eastman in 2000, and he remained a caring, generous, and inspiring presence in my life throughout his time on this earth.  I think very often about some of our discussions and wish he were still here for me to ask the many unanswerable questions for which he always seemed to have answers.  I hope my work over the next two years will play some small part in maintaining his legacy as a wonderful human being and a composer of finely-crafted, beautiful music.