Seen

This work, commissioned by The Phillips Collection, is inspired by the Kin series of visual artist Whitfield Lovell, which depicts beautiful individual portraits of unknown African Americans with ordinary every day objects. Written for the renowned woodwind quintet, Imani Winds, this piece draws inspiration from ordinary objects in their own lives, past and present. Much like Lovell’s drawings, the work - a series of five short musical portraits - strives to present each player and object on the basis of their immediacy. What you hear is what they each offered me in conversation, but also plays into a double language, literally and figuratively. Each portrait alludes to a secondary consciousness. My hope is to give every listener an opportunity to make sense of a small piece of a stranger’s past.