Tonight Ensemble Paramirabo will be premiering my piece Waiting as part of their joint tour with my long time collaborators Thin Edge New Music Collective. The concert, titled Raging Against the Machine: Coming Together, is presented by Music on Main and will take place at the Fox Cabaret. It’s a very special honour for me to finally be presented by this much beloved music series, which my family has been frequenting for many years. This is also my first time working with Paramirabo and I am super excited about tonight’s performance. More info can be found here.

The piece was inspired by a Ukrainian folksong I found in a printed anthology, which so elegantly and succinctly explores the state of waiting for someone much longed for. It is a complex mixture of conflicting emotions, which gives a great sense of meaning and poignancy to the simplest elements of one’s life. It is a state characterized by obsessive creation of many scenarios, both positive and negative, but always extreme. The image of weeping willows swaying in the wind inspired the structure of the piece. Thoughts of wind and breath were very much on my mind. Fragments of the folksong melody are constantly replayed and reworked, and the first four lines of poetry are obsessively repeated in three languages. 

Here’s my rendition of the song.

“Хилітеся, густі лози,
Звіткіль вітер віє!…
Дивітеся, карі очі,
Звіткіль милий (мила) їде!…

Хилилися густі лози,
Та вже й перестали…
Дивилися, карі очі,
Та й плакати стали.”

“Bend, O, bend, you thick willows,
From where does the wind blow?
Watch, O, watch, you brown eyes,
From where will your beloved come?

Bent, and bent, the thick willows,
And then fell still…
Watched, and watched, the brown eyes,
And began to weep. “