Three Views (2017, Rev. 2019)

General Information

Movements:
I. In Solitude
II. Inside
III. Distant

Commissioner: Written for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Nancy and Barry Sanders Composer Fellowship Program
Written: September 2016 – May 2017, Revised February 2019
Duration: ca. 6.5’
Instrumentation: vln + vla + vcl + pno (piano quartet)

Performance History

May 22, 2017: Mann-Wen Lo (violin), Linnea Powell (viola), Nicholas Mariscal (cello), Thomas Kotcheff (piano) at Choral Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, CA (World Premiere)
February 20, 2018: Paige Towsey (violin), Abba Hason (viola), Kyle Stachnick (cello), Chen-Hui Jen (piano) at Clark Recital Hall, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL
February 22, 2018: Clara Ross (violin), Allison Hong (viola), Madeleine Kim (cello), Benjamin Beckman (piano) at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Los Angeles, CA
April 7, 2019: Takumi Taguchi (violin), Jacqueline Liu (viola), Sarah Kave (cello), Benjamin Beckman (piano) at the Breman Jewish Museum, Atlanta, GA
May 5, 2019: Alyssa Park (violin), Luke Maurer (viola), Timothy Loo (cello), Vicki Ray (piano) at First Lutheran Church of Venice, Los Angeles, CA

Broadcast History

April 6, 2020: NPR’s From the Top, host: Laura Downes
June 3, 2019: NPR’s From the Top, host: Laura Downes

Program Note

I wrote Three Views from October 2016 to April 2017 for the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Nancy and Barry Sanders Composer Fellowship Program. As part of the program, I was given a specific prompt: the instrumentation was assigned, and the piece had to consist of three short movements. While in progress, Three Views had another title: 'Three Views of Three Cities.' I was inspired by recent travels to Montreal and New York City, as well as my home of Los Angeles. The first movement, now titled 'In Solitude', was a reflection on sitting alone on a bench in Central Park listening to music, watching the world pass by. The second movement, 'Inside', was inspired by my cross- country runs through Montreal while visiting; the city seemed so vibrant, exciting, and ever-moving. The final movement 'Distant' is a contemplation inspired by an overlook of nearly the entire city of Los Angeles found in the Santa Monica mountains, the endpoint of one of my favorite at-home runs. Once I had generated musical material for each movement, though, my artistic vision seemed to fall short or vary from these places I was representing. Individual elements of each movement seemed to violate their 'place', and the overall conception of the work seemed a bit disjointed. After a lot of thinking and revision, I decided to change my approach; instead of viewing three disparate cities, I considered the idea of viewing the same city from three different angles, as my inspiration for each movement happened to be drawn from a different perspective of looking at each city I was in. Thus, Three Views in its final state was born: it is a meditation on perspective, on human life, on the ceaseless tide of movement and activity that flows through our everyday business.

In the fall of 2018, I was asked to revise this work for a performance at the Breman Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta, GA on April 7th, 2019. The revisions involved a large update to the score’s notation, cutting the piece from 7.5' to 6.5', and adding material to the second movement.

Awards

HearNow Festival Call for Scores, Winner (2019)
NPR From the Top, Audition Program, Winner (2019)
American Composer’s Forum Nextnotes Young Composer Awards, Honorable Mention (2018)