The idea for our work, In a Winter Garden, came after several months of searching for an appropriate text for a large choral work.  I had been reading Donne, Yeats, and Burns hope to find the perfect text.  What I discovered was, that for each of my large vocal works, I have used an original script.  Once I learned this about myself, I turned to the works of Patricia Hampl, a writer whose works I’d admired.  Bruce Carlson of the Schubert Club introduced us.

Shortly, our discussion led to Advent and the medieval practice of Advent as the season in which to contemplate the end of the world.  We agreed that the subject was both timely and elegant.  More importantly it suggested words and music to our collective creative sense.  Our work together had produced a surprising new third voice—one which neither Patricia nor I could claim singly.

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