Works
Orchestra
Songs of the Ice (2019)
orchestra
14'
Publisher: Edition Wilhelm Hansen
Songs of the Ice is an orchestral work about ice. In the Arctic region, the ice breathes with the seasons, swelling in winter and shrinking in summer. Its age-old movement sings a song of its own: slowly surging, unrelenting and covering all beneath it. It tinkles and rumbles, squeaks and laments as our ever-warmer climate breaks Nature’s time-honoured laws, forcing the ice to give way. When I composed the piece, I was expecting our second child, due to be born in the heart of winter when the bitter cold strengthens the ice, making it powerful and solid again, and I was vividly reminded of the time after our first-born. Songs of the Ice also describes the emptiness and reclosing process that begins in a woman’s body when she parts company with the life inside her in giving birth. The work was commissioned by the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and The Iceland Symphony Orchestra.
Songs of the Ice and Midnight Sun Variations can be performed as a pair, in either order, or individually.
Orchestrations:
3(pic:pic:pic).2+ca.2+bcl.2+cbsn/4.3(flg).2+btbn/1timp.3perc/hp.pf(cel)/str
2(pic:pic).1+ca.2(bcl).1+cbsn/2.2.0.0/timp.2perc/hp.pf(cel)/str
Premiere: October 2, 2020
Helsinki Music Centre, Finland
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, cond. Hannu Lintu
February 18, 2021
Concert Hall Harpa, Reykjavik, Iceland
Iceland Symphony Orchestra, cond. Eva Ollikainen
February 23, 2022
Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbour, USA
University of Michigan School of Music Symphony Orchestra, cond. Kenneth Kiesler
September 24, 2022
Southam Hall, Ottawa, Canada
National Arts Center Orchestra, cond. Alexander Shelley
March 3, 2023
Singletary Center for the Arts University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, cond. John Nardolillo
March 9, 2023
Neuhaussaal, Regensburg, Germany
Regensburg Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Tom Woods
March 13, 2023
Neuhaussaal, Regensburg, Germany
Regensburg Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Tom Woods
April 12, 2023
Helsinki Music Centre, Helsinki, Finland
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, cond. Nicholas Collon
November 23, 2025
Alte Oper, Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Jukka-Pekka Saraste