he only dreamed of places now…
US premiere; after Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea
Performed by Sebastian Ledesma Kim (Piano), Aileen Wan (Flute), Marilyn Farias (Clarinet), Vanda Paszko (Violin), Harmony Chiang (Viola), Victoria Lin (Cello), Natalie North (Vibraphone), Jonathan Hass (Conductor)
This one-movement piece for seven instruments was inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s novella The Old Man and the Sea — the short masterpiece (also Hemingway’s last published work) that led to his Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize, written on the cutting edge of post-WW2 society and a symbol of faith in humanity and its purpose. Its epigraph: “He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and of the lions on the beach.” The musical material aims to embody an “enchanted state,” a “state of stillness” and a “sense of movement within the stillness.”