Program Note:

I have thought about suffering a fair amount in my life, a dilemma of our existence.
 
I have always loved Beth Bachmann's poetry for how she viscerally and fearlessly articulates base yet honest human emotions. I greatly enjoy Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus because of how it examines the prices of choices, especially in regards to love, fulfillment, failure, and damnation. Esmeralda, the woman who gives the protagonist his fateful disease, haunts the novel.
 
This work is a meditation on pain, damage, and loss, but prayers of peace are also present. As an artist, I'm fascinated in weighing great despair in one hand, and calming hope in the other. I am interested in the depths of the soul.

Performances:

• Caitlin Aloia, Karl Blench, and musicians of the Shepherd School of Music, Duncan Hall, Houston Texas, November 10, 2021.