TESTIFY! (2024)
Instrumentation: 2222/4231(+ b. tbn)/timp/2 perc/hrp/pno/strings
Duration: 5’
Many of my earliest musical memories are from the church. As a young girl, I was always enamored by the rhythms of instruments and bodies sounding and moving in jubilation and perfect harmony. I remember watching Mama — a self-proclaimed “non-musician” — work her way around a tambourine, making it dance and sing like magic. Watching her I would get lost in the sizzle of the jingles and the glistening light that would shimmer off them and onto the pew as she played. Mama made the impossible happen every day of the week — Sunday was no exception — and when she plays the tambourine, even to this day, I feel like I’m in a whirlwind of sound and technicolor. For me, it’s a little slice of heaven on Earth. TESTIFY! is inspired by this feeling. Built off of rhythmic patterns from Mama’s tambourine playing and the hymn I’m So Glad, this piece is a kaleidoscope of sounds I hold dear.
TESTIFY! was commissioned by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program, an initiative of the League of American Orchestras in partnership with the American Composers Orchestra. World premiere given by the Jacksonville Symphony and Music Director Courtney Lewis.
Notable Performances
Premiere: Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra — September 27, 2024
Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra — February 22, 2024
The Amarillo Symphony — TBD
Oregon Symphony — TBD
Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra — TBD
Purchase and Rental Available Spring 2025