On The Street Where I Live (2022)
for Percussia
commissioned by Percussia through the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA)

1. The Never-ending Ambulances
2. “Help, Somebody!”
3. Gasn Nign (Street Tune)
4. Desperate Measures

A cycle of four pieces for flute, fadolín, harp and two percussionists, it is inspired by my neighborhood, the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where I have lived since 1990. The first movement “The Never-ending Ambulances” is, an aural portrait of our essential workers as they drove through the streets at all hours at the peak of the pandemic. “Help, Somebody!” takes its musical germ from a person named William who would show up on our corner in the evenings to ask for change by singing a Gospel-style song. I would hear fragments of it from our window. “Gasn Nign” (“Street Tune” in Yiddish) is a tune I improvised while performing on our corner and expanded for this piece. The final movement, “Desperate Measures”, is a dance — Balkan? Latin? Klezmer? Celtic? — impossible to pin down culturally and rhythmically, just like all of us, searching for a way forward.

June 8, 2022 at Travers Park, Queens