Cordavi and Fig

Cordavi and Fig was written for the Cross-Atlantic Composers’ Partnership project. This exchange program, sponsored by Yale School of Music and London’s Royal Academy of Music, asked three composers from each school to write a piece with the same instrumentation as Geörgy Ligeti’s 1969 Chamber Concerto.

 I wrote Cordavi and Fig while visiting Charleston, South Carolina. My good friends Nathan Koci and Ron Wiltrout are both fabulous and versatile musicians, and they played several gigs while I was in town. Each gig covered a different style of music, but they always played with passion and skill. This versatility, and the universality of good musicianship, inspired the sound of Cordavi and Fig, which is named after two Charleston restaurants at which Nathan and Ron played.