Our future plans and meeting Aaron Myers

When our tour ended we were pumped to plan other projects. Though we have not been blogging lately, Jen and I have been working away, putting together next season! We’ve contacted some more of our favorite composers who we hoped would be interested in working with us. Much to our delight they’ve agreed!!

Something we are really excited about is our American Folksong Project. Because James Kallembach wrote us a song cycle steeped in American history and celebrating American poet, Anne Bradstreet, we’ve been inspired to pair his piece with another part of America’s rich past, its folk music. Five composers are all working on writing folk-inspired pieces for this project.  

One of those fabulous composers is Aaron Myers in Boston, MA. Since I was visiting some family in Boston, Jen and I were able to meet with Aaron at Diesel Café in Somerville, MA. We are usually so far from our collaborators that we can’t meet with them in person, so this was a real privilege. While we had to dodge the pool sticks of a couple playing billiards next to us (we didn’t get great seats, and they were NOT sacrificing the game for our personal space), it was all worth it because we were able to talk about the project in great detail. Aaron also asked a lot of questions about range, musical colors, and extended techniques. Aaron is a great guy and I’m really looking forward to working with him.

Watch the news section of our website for information about when and where these pieces will be premiered. We’ll also be announcing the other four composers soon – exciting!

-Heather 

P.S. We have asked Sarah Hersh to write  a song cycle another project - our tour of a seven letter state next year – keep an eye on our future  news and blog posts for more about her and her piece.