16 Sep Affirmation – Wayne Oquin
Wayne Oquin (b.1977) is among today’s most performed American composers, having premiers on five continents, in twenty countries, and in forty-five states. Upon completing his Doctorate of Musical Arts in 2008, The Julliard School awarded Oquin its coveted Richard F. French Prize for best dissertation and appointed him to itsfaculty where he teaches music theory, graduate studies, and serves as Chair of Musicianship. Affirmation is a ten-minute reflection on a wide range of often conflicting emotions that encompass the human condition of life and death, love and loss, and darkness and light. At no point are these extremities juxtaposed side by side, but rather, they gradually materialize. While the music travels far in terms of its range of register, harmony, and dynamic, it does so almost imperceptibly as one long arc from beginning to end.
Program Notes by Marcie Phelan