Gumboots

I finished a new piece today, my commission from Carnegie Hall for the wonderful Todd Palmer and the St Lawrence String Quartet. The piece is called Gumboots, because it draws some of its inspiration from the gumboot dancers of South Africa. What excites me about this piece is that it encapsulates something of a paradoxical outlook on life I have, in which I have an almost nihilistic sense of the meaning of the world, and yet am also eternally optimistic. The fact that humans in general are capable of optimism even when the world is falling apart and terrible things are happening is, I think, a cause for comfort, and the amazing thing is that some of the darker sides of life are often the catalyst for wonderful works of art - gumboot dancing being a case in point.

>> Details of the concert here

>> More details and a programme note for the piece here



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