A tribute to Gloria Estefan for sinfonietta and electronics(version for chamber orchestra also available)
Written for Alarm Will Sound
Program Notes
During the COVID-19 pandemic – a highly unusual yet new normal, surreal and yet painfully real time – artists have been challenged to think about what community means. In an artform in which physicality is essential, how is this affected during a pandemic in which our bodies are at risk? Our connection to our physical bodies has deepened, becoming hyper-aware of every breath, every ache, and every anxiety. Furthermore, due to social distancing we haven’t been able physically connect with each other in the same ways as before, simultaneously craving and fearing each other’s human contact. As society reopens, we’re all itching to get up and dance after sitting on our couches for an entire year.
Turn Your Feet Around brings the nightclub to the concert hall. Using deconstructed and warped fragments of the ever fabulous Gloria Estefan’s “Get On Your Feet,” performers have a chance to reconnect with their own physicality by dancing to wild reimagined grooves and 80s-style drum beats. Whether socially distanced or not, it’s time to get on our feet and find the rhythms and movements that have been waiting to unleash this entire year! Because as Gloria says, “Find it, I know it will pull you through.”
Many thanks to Alarm Will Sound and the Mizzou New Music Festival for commissioning this piece.
(Full video to be released in 2022)
Performed by Alarm Will Sound
Performed by Alarm Will Sound
Presented by the Mizzou International Composers Festival
July 31st, 2021
March 21st, 2023 (video performance)
Tuesdays at Monk Space Presents: Nina Shekhar & Friends
Monk Space, Los Angeles, CA
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Louisville Orchestra concert: “Philharmonia Fantastique Soundcheck”
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Old Forester’s Paristown Hall, Louisville, KY
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“Egalitarian Brass Goes Electric”
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Opera America Rehearsal Hall, New York, NY
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Princeton Sound Kitchen: Generals Concert
Taplin Auditorium (Princeton University), Princeton, NJ
March 10th, 2022
Present Music: Ablaze
Performed by Present Music (conducted by David Bloom)
Milwaukee Art Museum & Present Music Digital Stage (live and streamed concert)
Milwaukee, WI
July 31st, 2021
Missouri International Composers Festival: Alarm Will Sound Concert
Performed by Alarm Will Sound (conducted by Alan Pierson)
University of Missouri, Columbia, MO (live and streamed concert)
