I needed to make my start.

Zeitgeist and the Eric Stokes Song Contest took me on an unforgettable ride. Along with two wonderful "adult" composers, I was selected as a winner and received humongous benefits: several performances, recordings, a video clip, newspaper interviews, plus the actual winnings. It also made me pretty cool at school :). Most importantly, it gave me the confidence that I, and my music, mattered. This is a talisman that I continue to grasp--because they, the panel of judges and the Zeitgeist ensemble, were the first people to make me proud of being a female PoC composer with a funky music background.

That feeling set me up to go forth and write more. I soon attempted it all: choral, orchestral, film. And a couple years later,I promise that this piece will get everyone's attention!

The next pieces are a group of miniatures by English composer Marcus Blunt. Marcus and I met digitally (though not yet in person) through our mutual interest in Scriabin, and the many elements of Scriabin's harmonic language. It uses the piano's resonance in an attractive way. The fantasy on the name of Gabriel Fauré takes as a melodic line the musical letters of Fauré's name. It's one of several Blunt compositions governed by this principle. Both it and the Nocturnes have their moments of drama, but they will be heard in this program as a lyrical counterpart to the Chambers opening salvo. These are my first performances of Blunt's music.

Jennifer Higdon's Notes of Gratitude was commissioned for a concert "Notes