commissioned by the Quintet of the Americas through the National Endowment for the Arts “For The Sparrows” was commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts, based on a residency designed by the composer Judith Sainte-Croix. Tragically, Judith passed away before the commission came through and I was asked to take over, which I was honored to do in her memory. In essence, Judith, together with Barbara Oldham (hornist of the Quintet of the Americas), who created the construct of the piece, putting all of the constituents together — I just had to write it the music, and quickly. I saw it as an opportunity to step into another composer’s world, while paying tribute to her and contributing something of my own. In the process of writing this piece I had the incredible privilege to interview seniors, workshop movements with enthusiastic children of local schools, and to lead an improvised happening with the Jackson Heights Orchestra on a sweltering July day. Judith Sainte-Croix loved spending time in nature, gathering her inspiration on long walks and meditations. Following her example, and as an avid cyclist, I biked to and from most of the residency activities from our apartment on the Upper West Side, some 10 miles away. The work is in four movements, which were written in the order of appearance. The first movement, for the quintet alone, was based on

take a listen to the live recording of the premiere performance: commissioned by Art of Élan (from Ljova’s interview with violist Hannah Nicholas) I grew up listening to the Brahms Clarinet Quintet and Golijov’s “Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind”, and wanted to see if I could contribute in a meaningful way to the genre. Of course, as a violist, we’ve also shared the Brahms Sonatas and the Clarinet Trio.As a young orchestral player (I grew up as a classically-trained violist), the clarinet was my least favorite instrument in the orchestra — I didn’t understand how it could blend in with the rest of the wind section. As a standard orchestral sound, the clarinet has a relatively plain tone, whereas the rest of the wind instruments have a beautiful natural vibrato. Then as I grew up, I started listening to other kinds of music, and found the lack of vibrato to be an asset.  I started thinking that the clarinet is wonderful, and it does have vibrato in some contexts, and it has so much inflection, flavor, and of course, immense range.  It eventually became my favorite wind instrument. Then I discovered some incredible players – one of my favorite performances at Juilliard was playing in the orchestra on Corigliano’s Clarinet Concerto with soloist Alex Fiterstein. Some of my favorite recordings are with jazz clarinetist Michel Portal, and the bass-clarinettist Michael Lowenstern.  And