Part IV, Recording, Pizza and Red Wine

In June of 2017 I set off to New York, visited Colette and her dear husband Saul in their apartment just off Central Park. I recorded her reading the seven poems I had chosen from the set of a dozen or so she had mailed me. Since I was there, I also recorded her reading of “Empress in the Mirror,” since the piece I composed around that poem was to be on our upcoming album (Fuse Ensemble 3, Ravello Records). We spent the rest of the evening enjoying these most gracious hosts for dinner, wine and much laughter. 

We enjoyed several months of collaboration by letters, phone calls and an occasional email. I then applied to the VCCA France residency. Writing this music in southwest France, so near Nerac, the hometown of her mother’s family would be relevant, meaningful, inspiring.