The Holy Liftoff (Terry Riley)
A collaboration with Terry Riley on his open-ended work The Holy Liftoff, commissioned from Riley by Claire Chase for her Density 2036 project.
Riley’s score consists of two parts: a folio of drawings with musical fragments, and 25 minutes of through-composed music for flute choir. Embedded in the drawings are fragments of music — musical ingredients whose interpretation and instrumentation are left completely open.
I created a 65-minute realization for flute, string quartet, and pre-recorded sounds, interlacing my interpretations of the musical drawings with the through-composed material, which I also orchestrated for this version. The pre-recorded sounds include flutes (up to 18 at once), stones and wind, and Riley’s speaking voice.
This realization was premiered by Chase and the JACK Quartet in Brooklyn in May 2024. I also edited Riley's through-composed material, which can be performed on its own in a version for live solo flute and pre-recorded flute choir.
A recording will be released on Sono Luminus in July 2026.
Concert video of the 45-minute version at the 2025 Ojai Music Festival