Program Note:   

I retain vivid, intense impressions of the emotive bonds and attachments developed with people in particular locations and environments. I also have a filmmaker’s taste for the indelible, unique visual character of a precise location. Even smells—Milwaukee’s hops and yeast; Philadelphia’s metallic tang; Manhattan’s subways; Managua’s burnt pine, cane, rubber, and dirt—act as madeleine-like triggers. Sense of place inspires my Piano Trio No. 8.

Pacifica consists of four musical portraits of cities along the coast of the Pacific Ocean that I have known well and loved. For the first movement, I drew inspiration from a somewhat off the rails drive through downtown Managua around midnight on New Year’s Eve 2016.

The second movement recalls a long, contemplative walk in downtown Los Angeles late one night during the early 80s.

The third movement recalls the end of a love affair on a sleepless night in San Francisco’s Castro District in 1987.

The final movement is inspired by a beautiful ride on the ferry from Bremerton to Seattle in spring 2010. The Puget Sound’s majesty reconnected me with the joy that I used to feel during my first decade living in Manhattan admiring the proud New York City skyline from the deck of the Staten Island Ferry.