This three movement work has been commissioned by the violinists of the WORLD SONATA PROJECT: VIOLIN and is one piece in a collection of works that focus on the natural materials of the instruments they were written for.

PEARL takes its impetus from the violin itself; the shape of the violin can be seen in the curves of the melodic lines in the first phrase of the score, and the materials of the violin–its resonating body of wood and the mother of pearl inlay found in many violins–have constituted much of the inspiration for the piece.

Freshwater pearls and mother of pearl light up in stunning ways under UV light, and in the first movement, FANTASIA ULTRAVIOLET, I've sought to write a musical portrait that gives the musicians and audience the sumptuous, grand drama that the violin and piano create so beautifully together.

The second movement begins with a "mermaid interlude" in the piano, taking our musical story down into watery depths. LUX AQUAE means "light of waters" and is a quiet elegy to the places those mother of pearl inlays began their life long before they became part of our violins. Here the piano and violin create an eery, mesmerizing space; while writing this I was thinking of the refracted light that floats down from the water's surface.

DANCE IRIDESCENCE takes its title from the magical colors and light that appear in the many layers of nacre; the material that makes up pearls and mother of pearl. This movement is a quickly moving, riotous yet tender moto perpetuo that makes use of some of the violin's most resonant notes and harmonics while perhaps speaking a bit about the forests whose trees experienced their own long lives before being felled and whittled into the resonant bodies we know now as violins.