Jory Herman
Jeez
ensemble violin, percussion, double bass
duration 7:35 minutes
written 2023
commissioned by Art of Elan
premiered November 15, 2023, San Diego, CA
For inquiries about this piece, please email music@joryherman.com.
Wistfully Yours
ensemble violin, cello, bass, marimba
duration 6 minutes
written 2021
commissioned by Art of Elan
premiered November 10, 2021, San Diego, CA
For inquiries about this piece, please email music@joryherman.com.
Program Notes:
I wrote Wistfully Yours in dedication to Art of Elan, an organization that during my formative professional years as a musician I watched do amazing things for the San Diego arts community. As with many of us these past 2 years, our lives were uprooted in different ways and I had to reexamine what it meant to ‘be a musician’. Without performing on stage for an audience, what makes us musicians? One of the ways to answer this question for myself and to continue my artistic endeavors was to begin writing some thoughts down into musical form. This piece is an opus 1. I’ll never be able to write another piece like this because what you’ll hear is the frayed and unrefined beginning. The awkward first steps of an exploration. You might hear reminiscent textures of John Luther Adams (a composer my wife listened to while preparing for childbirth of our first daughter in San Diego), Andy Akiho (pieces that have an unmistakable rhythmic intensity like no other), and of course another Art of Elan nostalgic moment – violist and composer AJ Nilles (his works have been premiered by Art of Elan at Crossfire and Young Artists in Harmony events).
Art of Elan presented Jory Herman’s Wistfully Yours at The San Diego Museum of Art on November 9, 2021.