In 2011, I did my first performance of Luigi Nono’s “La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura” for violinist and electronics, with sound artist Chris Burns in New York City. Our subsequent album of the piece – on the Urlicht label, in both stereo and surround sound and including the singing indicated in Nono’s score – was named a Best Recording of 2012 by Zachary Woolfe in the New York Times. We’ve gone on to perform the 50-minute piece in a wonderful variety of spaces and venues, in Europe and America.

Our collaboration on a new production with AMOC, the exciting interdisciplinary collective I’m part of, is a leap forward in taking the piece into new conceptual territory. We workshopped with director Zack Winokur for a week last winter and met this summer at the Clark Art Institute for two live performances outdoors. By memorizing the music this time – an intense summer-long project for me – and eliminating music stands, I had freedom of movement not only between sections and locations, but anytime. I felt like I was moving within a giant, kaleidoscopic mobile sculpture in sound, both in physical reality and in my mind. There were wonderful interactions with the physical and sonic environment of the Clark – the pond and hills, the frogs, birds, and bugs, and the progression of day time to night. The beautiful film by Rafe Scobey-Thal, capturing much of our collaboration and performance there, will hopefully be publicly shared again sometime.