Traveling to Australia on a direct flight from Dallas to Sydney this past summer constituted a seventeen-hour plane ride that began at 10pm at night. (My longest previous air travel from Houston to London was no preparation for this marathon event in the sky!) I fully expected to come back from the trip with inspiration for a new work; after all, this was my first time to visit the continent. What I did not expect was where the inspiration came from – interestingly, because my husband and I left at 10pm at night and traveled westward, and due to the fact that the earth spins eastward, our plane stayed out of the path of the sunlight until we final arrived in Sydney at 6am. Ever since, I have found my mind drawn to the idea of how this circumstance is physically achieved. (in fact, if you are a bit of a science nerd like me you might enjoy the video I’ve posted from minute physics!) Since typically we all experience the daylight and nighttime as the earth makes its daily rotation around the sun, my fascination centers around a plane’s ability to move fast enough to not be taken with the atmosphere, but instead, in essence – to chase light.

My new saxophone quartet piece “Chasing Light” will utilize harmonic content similar to my previous work for Saxophone Trio, “Three” (see the page-turning score at the bottom of the page). “Chasing Light” will be written at a difficulty level suitable for competitive undergraduate saxophone quartets, and will contain some extended techniques such as possible slap tonguing in the bari, tenor, and alto saxophones, and altissimo register for the soprano saxophone. I will also include a reworking of my oboe and piano work “Transition” for soprano sax and piano. See and hear an excerpt from “Transition” below, as well as download the program notes.

Thank you for your interest! Please contact me if you would like more information or to join.