Nocturne
Instrumentation: solo piano
Year Composed: 2020
Duration: 4'30''
Program Notes:
Just over a year ago, I was planning to hear Eunmi Ko premiere a new piece at a festival in the mountains of Southern France. The premiere would have been outdoors under the stars. I was going to travel there, see Barcelona, Marseilles, the Pyrenees. This would have been summer 2020.
Because of the setting, I was playing around with very loosely-defined “lead sheet realizations” on the ballad “Stella by Starlight.” Around the time that Notre Dame cancelled classes (3/13/20) I started working on this “realization,” exploring my deep nostalgia for Chopin’s nocturnes. I thought it might fit into the set of pieces I was writing, but by the time I’d finished it, everything was cancelled.
So I’m left with this nocturne, orphaned from a project that never happened. If you’re in the mood, please listen to Eunmi’s deeply, deeply moving interpretation of this piece, reflect on all the things that never happened in the past year, and maybe find some solace.
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Eunmi Ko, piano
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