DiPrima Songs (text: Diane DiPrima) song cycle for soprano and clarinet; 12' (1996)
composer's note: Before I decided to be a composer, I seriously pursued clarinet performance as a potential career path. This piece, “DiPrima Songs” marks the moment I knew I was going to be a composer instead. These are the first art songs I ever wrote, and were premiered by soprano Gilda Lyons, who I accompanied on the clarinet, at the Middlebury College “Festival of the Human Voice” in 1997. While these songs are certainly not up to the standards of my mature work, it’s enlightening for me to look at them and see all the germs of what would eventually become my own style, lurking in these early songs.