Ad Astra is committed to commissioning new music and performing works written within the last ten years. Desperately missing live musical interaction during our distancing, we reached out to composer Andrew Rodriguez to bring us together with his compositional voice and tech savvy and new media artist Xuan to bring the piece alive with her digital art. Watch the world premiere of Andrew's work, written for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, piano, and voice.

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PROGRAM

featuring
Tynan Davis, mezzo-soprano
Tammy Evans Yonce, flute
Kristin Pisano, clarinet
Negar Afazel, violin
Benjamin Cline, cello
César Cañón, piano
Ryan Pearson, percussion

with
Andrew Rodriguez, composer
Xuan, new media artist

I: My warmth, my gaze

My warmth, my gaze
(my warmth, my gaze)

These days,
sometimes,
so many hours spent
searching
(my warmth, my gaze)
(my words, my shape) 

For years I’ve tried to find
memories
searching
(my warmth, my gaze)
(my words, my shape)

Memories as recent as yesterday.
Memories as recent as
a hundred years ago.
(my warmth, my gaze)
(my only wish, distancing yourself) 

II: I remember

I remember picking out carnations,
I knew you when you were my age now,
I’m trying to not lose myself in thought,
For years I’ve tried to find my way back,
I’ve passed you half a hundred times by now,
I’m trying to not remember,
I knew you when you were my age now,
I believe you. 

III: Dust

Tabernacle in dust,
this scattered inheritance
signal mirrors flickering,
distancing yourself 

Tabernacle in dust,
this scattered inheritance,
crystalline glow,
my warmth, my gaze 

Tabernacle in dust,
this scattered inheritance,
neighbors I never knew,
my only wish. 

Tabernacle in dust,
this scattered inheritance,
myriad of me,
becoming dust, before long.