On Saturday, October 3, sfCONTEMPORARY (the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, under their new name) opened its 56th season at Brava Theater with Bay Bridges, and apeiron had its West Coast premiere. The concert was a tremendous success, and I’m grateful to have been part of it.
The program brought together composers who live and work in the Bay Area: Shuying Li’s Migration, Matthew Evan Taylor’s Pursuit, Michael Gilbertson’s Breath and Shadow, and apeiron, with Darius Milhaud’s Stanford Serenade to close, featuring Kyle Bruckmann on oboe. Hearing my piece close to home, on a program with colleagues whose music I admire, meant a great deal to me.
apeiron is for chamber ensemble and electronics. The Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition commissioned it, and the Grossman Ensemble gave the world premiere in Chicago in December 2025 under Micah Gleason. The title is Anaximander’s word for the boundless, the undefined substance from which everything emerges and to which it returns. I wrote it in memory of my friend, the composer Nicholas R. Nelson, who died in 2024.
Thank you to Artistic Director Eric Dudley for programming the piece, to Executive Director Richard Aldag, to the musicians of sfCONTEMPORARY for their playing, and to everyone who came out to Brava that night.
