Ephemeral Blossom Premieres at NMOP

The New Music on the Point quartet, with soprano Piper Weldon, flutist, Anjali Shinde, Violist Ariana Mascard, Adam Tendler, piano and Max Chung on electronics, premiered Max's new work "ephemeral Blossom at the NMOP music festival. This electroacoustic composition was inspired by the concept of dormancy and fleeting moments of bloom that reflect the resiliency of our ecosystem. Inspired by Death Valley, where every few years the desert springs to life with the momentary and astounding moment of color after a rainstorm from these dormant seeds. The soundscape of this piece drew from the raw, unfiltered wind which was beautiful in its stark unsettling sparseness with the pitch slowly creeping into each phrase with a final integration of percussive sounds that layer over the texture. The last third of the work grows into a startling and momentary flourish which drastically expands the range and timbre of each instrument. The composition closes with the interplay of electronics and the echo of the voice reverberating in the piano soundboard to evoking the haunting transience of the ephemeral blossom; a reminder of the fragility and resilience of life itself.