News | Concert Pianist, Educator

ETSU Trio premiered at ETSU Reed Day on February 22, 2020. Trio member includes: Lisa Perry, clarinet; Heather Killmeyer, English horn; Yi-Yang Chen, piano.

The proposal “Connection and Imagination: Trees Dream of Dancing by Katherine Ann Murdock” was selected to present in two conferences in March:

Music By Women Festival (March 5-7, 2020) @ Mississippi University for Women (Columbus, Mississippi)
43rd Annual Appalachian Studies Conference (March 12-15, 2020) @ University of Kentucky (Lexington, Kentucky)

Program Notes
The redwood forests of California served as inspiration for Katherine Ann Murdock’s trio Trees Dream of Dancing. Composed in 2003, this one-movement work features the unusual instrumentation of clarinet, English horn, and piano. Although not a common chamber ensemble, the timbres of these instruments compliment one another and provide effective contrast and blend. With the emergence of new research providing evidence that trees communicate with each other, the program underlying Trees Dream of Dancing adds another element for performers to consider when analyzing and interpreting this chamber piece. Intrigued by the idea of great trees rooted to the ground, but dreaming of dancing as they slumber, Murdock stages a playful scene. The clarinet and English horn trade gestures, with motives imitated or inverted. Quartal harmony is a prominent feature throughout the piece, and along with arpeggiated runs of stacked augmented 4ths in the piano, evokes an atmospheric dream state. The trio is in ABA form, but musical gestures, rather than cadential movement, delineate the sections. As is typical of Murdock’s compositional style, the reed parts are idiomatic and feature the optimal tessituras of the clarinet and English horn.

Program Notes

The redwood forests of California served as inspiration for Katherine Ann Murdock’s trio Trees Dream of Dancing. Composed in 2003, this one-movement work features the unusual instrumentation of clarinet, English horn, and piano. Although not a common chamber ensemble, the timbres of these instruments compliment one another and provide effective contrast and blend. With the emergence of new research providing evidence that trees communicate with each other, the program underlying Trees Dream of Dancing adds another element for performers to consider when analyzing and interpreting this chamber piece.

Intrigued by the idea of great trees rooted to the ground, but dreaming of dancing as they slumber, Murdock stages a playful scene. The clarinet and English horn trade gestures, with motives imitated or inverted. Quartal harmony is a prominent feature throughout the piece, and along with arpeggiated runs of stacked augmented 4ths in the piano, evokes an atmospheric dream state. The trio is in ABA form, but musical gestures, rather than cadential movement, delineate the sections. As is typical of Murdock’s compositional style, the reed parts are idiomatic and feature the optimal tessituras of the clarinet and English horn.