Program Notes

This work was in collaboration with cellist Liam Battle for the 2022 Cortona Sessions For New Music festival at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. This virtuosic work displays all of the incredible playing ability that Liam had demonstrated to me in our previous interactions. Upon first meeting Liam, I felt he exuded an intense enthusiasm towards playing new and challenging musical repertoire that I had previously not seen before. He encouraged me to write him an energizing work that pushed the limits of both the cello and him. The resulting work was an endless flow of ricocheting lines and devilishly metal motifs. Motifs formed ironically from the spelling of Beethoven when I had his biography sitting on my desk (Be-e-tho-v-en) → (Eb, E, tonic (C), dominant (G), E). The name Obsidianator comes from the wasp species Gnamptopelta Obsidianator. I believed the appearance of this jet black wasp to be the perfect mascot to bear the mantle of this piece, especially after having visited my entomologist of a brother that had a netted cage full of them sitting in his room.