Tonight we performed Diagenesis’s debut concert and premiered three fantastic works by Lynn Petersen, Mischa Salkind-Pearl, and James Kallembach.

As a new duo, there was a lot of anticipation around this concert: How well will the unique combination of cello and voice relate to an audience? How will an audience respond to us as performers? The risk and excitement was different from so many other performing experiences. As we walked on stage, we were fully committed to performing these pieces that we loved and really believed in. The result was so rewarding.

In the audience were the composer of our first piece, Lynn Petersen, and the poet whose text she had chosen, Ed Noonan. Art song is a marriage between poetry and music, and so often performing these works is a strategic guessing game of what the composer and poet intended. While that traditional process is fun and challenging in its own way, playing for the actual composer and poet, live and inperson, is so exciting and an incredible opportunity. Even better, Lynn and Ed loved our performance!

The concert was very well attended, and the enthusiasm of the entire audience was palpable and so fulfilling for us. People really enjoyed the color of the two instruments and were grateful for all of our hard work. It was the ideal performance exchange and we can’t wait to get back to Montana for another concert!

-Heather and Jen