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In Spring 2020, flutist Angela Massey was preparing to marry Kris Marshall, the trumpet player in her Astralis Chamber Ensemble. I was planning a wedding gift for them, perhaps the flute/trumpet equivalent of an operatic love duet, when Angela coincidentally asked if Astralis could commission me to write a trio for flute, trumpet, and harp, as a program opener for their 2021-22 concert tours.
At first the uncommon instrumentation seemed challenging both for balances and for future performances beyond the commissioners, especially at an ominous time with the open-ended pandemic curtailing all activities. But it's a beautiful sonority, and always a delight to work with Angela and Astralis. We agreed this would be both a wedding present and a consortium commission, imbued with optimism both in the music and in our determination to get co-commissioners and performance dates as soon as public performances resumed. The result is a 7-minute, giddy fast-slow-fast overture, with a love duet as the middle section.
Revisiting the acoustic challenges of the original instrumentation, I've also prepared a scoring of Flute, Viola, and Harp which adds its own shade of beauty.
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