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^{Cabrillo Festival Orchestra | Aram Demirjian, conductor}

Program Note:
Strange, Beautiful Noises was written in the months preceding the birth of my son, Izaak. Along with the usual pre-parental anxiety, I found myself frequently imagining what it would be like to hear so many sounds for the very first time as he does, both through the watery walls of the womb and then suddenly without that warm, safe frequency filter. This piece was a gift to him and also a way for me to work through the anxiety of becoming a father for the first time. Nervous ticking, funk bass lines played by bass clarinet, rewind and reverse playback effects, a trombone solo imitating Charlie Brown’s teacher Mrs. Donovan, and many other noises make their way into this piece, eventually spiraling into a runaway train-like ending.