“How do Mothers impact us?”  Explore this simple, profound question in this musical and filmic exposé, featuring first-person stories captured by filmmaker Carlin Ma and musical works of Dvorák, Clara Schumann, Beach, and Brahms performed by violinist Kristin Lee, mezzo-sporano Jennifer Johnson Cano, and pianist Michael Stephen Brown.

Featuring newly written works for violin and percussion quartet by Joan Towers & Vivian Fung - to be performed after February 2026 after the world premiere performance at Emerald City Music.

From Vivian Fung:

I am very excited to announce this new collaboration with Kristin Lee and Sandbox Percussion.  Our relationships extend back many years.  I wrote my Violin Concerto No. 1 for Kristin in 2010, with Birdsong and Twist following shortly thereafter.  Sandbox and I partnered on (Un)Wandering Souls in 2020, and I have had a longtime interest in all things percussion (e.g., The Ice Is Talking, Voices Inside My Head).  

I see this project as a violin concerto of sorts, but in a more adventurous vein, as a percussion orchestra forms the backdrop for this setting.  My continual captivation with percussion is a product of the magnitude of possibilities that the genre contains, augmented by the notion of found objects becoming bona fide instruments.  While the possibilities for sound exploration are almost endless, my focus will be finding percussion sounds that complement, contrast, and augment the sounds of the violin.

A natural way of dividing the work is by the material type used - wood, glass, metal, etc.  So, for example, the glassy sounds of the harmonics on the violin may be complemented by an orchestra of glass sounds of different timbres in the percussion, and that can be augmented by experimenting with different shaped vessels - wine glasses, vases, and tubes come to mind.  

The wooden sounds possible on the violin such as knocking on the instrument and tapping on the wooden side of the bow can be augmented with wooden planks, wood blocks, and temple blocks struck in different ways.  

There is an inherent theatricalism in the sound world I am seeking to explore, so as part of the process of composition, I will be working with the performers to maximize the use of spatial possibilities in the room, placement of instruments and movement of performers during the work, and also playing around with the use of lighting.  

Because of the implicit experimentation involved in this piece, we are building into the schedule time for workshopping.  Initially, the performers and I will be exchanging notes by email and video conferencing.  Towards the end of my draft of the piece, we plan to meet in person, likely at Sandbox’s studio in Brooklyn, NY to play through the piece, make revisions, and experiment further to really create a unique work that highlights this collaboration.