World Premiere of Stuart Saunders Smith’s “When the Moment is too Big”

On April 12th, 2016, I performed the world premiere of a new work by Stuart Saunders Smith. This piece came out of working with Stuart and performing his music for over a decade now. Stuart wanted to write a piece for me and he asked for my input. I told him I’d like something that is similar to his mobiles – where several performers may choose different sections of the score to play. Mobiles are typically short passages that can be rearranged in any order during performance. They create variability during performances and were also used by other composers such as Earle Brown, John Cage, and Karlheinz Stockhausen (to name a few).

Stuart ended up creating a solo work that can be performed on vibraphone, glockenspiel, or piano, and the pages can be performed in any order. The work is approximately 55 minutes long (depending on your tempo) and my realization was for vibraphone. I also organized a consortium to help commission this work. With the generous help of the musicians listed below, this project was able to become a reality.

The consortium included: