Sonata No.5 for Cello and Piano Op.136 (2019) c.20’00”

in one movement

Co-commissioned by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and University of Nevada, Reno College of Liberal Arts for Dmitri Atapine and Hyeyeon Park

Dedicated to Dmitri Atapine and Hyeyeon Park

First performance on February 24th, 2022 by Dmitri Atapine, cello and Hyeyeon Park, piano at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Rose Studio, Lincoln Center, New York City

ABOUT

Sonata No.5 for Cello and Piano Op.136 was co-commissioned by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and University of Nevada, Reno College of Liberal Arts for Dmitri Atapine and Hyeyeon Park.

I first got to know the artistry of Dmitri Atapine and Hyeyeon Park when they recorded my (then) complete music for cello and piano for Blue Griffin Recordings in 2011. I was thrilled when they brought up the idea of my writing a new Sonata especially for them.

In one movement and clocking in at about twenty five minutes, it is the longest of my five cello sonatas. Its overall tone was inevitably influenced by my own emotional response to some of the distressing events going on in the world today; but the work is, like most of my music, non-programmatic and solely concerned with the musical argument of the manipulation and development of a few musical motives.