Sonata for Solo Flute

Duration - 9 minutes.

Written in the summer and fall of 2015, I think of this piece as “summer music”. In Chicago, it’s a season of almost compulsive activity after long months of cold, snow, and staying indoors. I also find it a season to reflect – to sit by the lake, watching the horizon. It’s a season of both joy and longing:

“The winter’s passed and the leaves are green,
The time is passed that we have seen,
But still I hope the time will come
When you and I shall be as one.” (Traditional American folk-song)

In collaborating with Suzanne Gillen, the commissioner of this work, we focused on making a piece suited just for her: at times outgoing, at others reserved, and always supremely virtuosic.

Commissioned by Suzanne (Gillen) Hannau.