ALREADY YESTERDAY OR STILL TOMORROW

for orchestra (2020), 10’30”

2(I=picc).2(=corA).2(=bcl).2-4.2(=flug).0.0*-timp.2perc(=cym/tri/wb/cast/flex/Mark tree/sd/bd/tam-t/glock/vib)-strings**

*Brass: Can also be played with 2 horns, 2 trumpets (both doubling flugelhorns), and 2 trombones

**Strings: 3 separate violin parts each to be played by at least 5 players, in addition to the standard parts for viola, cello, and double basses with a commensurate number of players

Like most people around the country, and all over the world, I have faced many challenges during the past year. Thankfully my wife and I have remained safe and healthy, mostly because we rarely go outside and have been ridiculously cautious when we do. The impact of our self-imposed house arrest has been a strange feeling of stasis, as if we’ve been somehow living the same day over and over again. Hours and weeks blur together, loosening the perception of the passage of time. It is a feeling that I imagine is very common in the present moment, though it has nevertheless been psychologically unnerving. Also, although we have luckily remained physically fine and have done our best to maintain a positive attitude through all this uncertainty, we have not been completely shielded from personal tragedy. We’ve had friends who contracted SARS-CoV-2 and we know several people who died from this virus, including two neighbors in our apartment building. The most difficult thing we faced was the death of my mother, Alaine Oteri, on April 3, 2020, during the Covid-19 peak in New York City, while we were unable to leave this apartment to personally tend to her final needs. As we subsequently learned through an investigative report published in The New York Times, she was one of over 100 victims who succumbed from the coronavirus at the elder residence where she spent the final decade of her life. This is the backdrop during which I composed and it has had a profound impact on the form, the rhythms, the timbres, the harmonies, and the melodies of the music I ultimately wrote.

World premiere of Already Yesterday Or Still Tomorrow on January 23, 2021 with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Delta David Gier, recipient of the 2022 Columbia University Ditson Conductor’s Award.