Overpainted Photographs (2022-23) for flute and orchestra
The piece was premiered on January 28, 2023 by Dalia Chin, flute, and Allen Tinkham conducting the Chicago Composers Orchestra.
Program Note: Overpainted Photographs (2022-23) for flute and orchestra was written for and in close collaboration with Chicago-based flutist Dalia Chin. The piece was inspired by the series of artworks of the same name by Gerhard Richter, who took photographs and smeared them with leftover paint after a day’s work in the studio. This was initially done in a very improvised way, so the results were not too controlled, almost like chance. I became fascinated with this idea, of memories being distorted by superimposing textures and masses. The problems faced in a musical context are quite different than in the visual arts. How can you create completely abstract, non-representational memories in a piece of instrumental music? In other words, not of a person, a place (at least not a physical one), or a thing… If you succeed in creating this kind of memory, how do you superimpose a mass of colors to distort, transform, or enhance the experience of it? These are some of the questions I tried to answer in this piece.
The piece was supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.