Night Echoes (2005) piano solo 5′

Night Echoes pays homage to Chopin and to Stephanie Wendt, my piano teacher for many years. In addition to her considerable gifts as a pianist, Stephanie is an actor, the playwright of a probing monodrama about Clara Schumann (Clara’s Visitor), an engaging radio commentator, an elegant prose stylist, and a most gracious and generous human being. She is currently teaching in Sweden, and is missed very much by all her state-side friends. Like many nocturnes, Night Echoes begins at a subconscious level, rises to a lyrical expression (which in this case is echoed in the left hand), proceeds unquietly to a grand statement, and subsides in refrain.