Over the years I have had the opportunity to collaborate with many wonderful artists; these collaborations have been among the best artistic experiences of my life. Most recently, I have been working with the brilliant choreographer Alia Kache. Alia is creating The Bloom and the Blackness, a gorgeous, incredibly moving dance work that uses my pieces The book of roses and memory and The Old Rose Reader (themselves collaborations with writer James Pritchett, violinist Mari Kimura, narrator Hervé Bronnimann, and violist Liuh-Wen Ting) as music. The Bloom and the Blackness explores a searing juxtaposition of romance, beauty, and love with the pain, violence, and dehumanization of racism. The first iteration of the work premiered on March 21 at Dixon Place. I was so thrilled and moved by what Alia created, and by the magnificent way it was brought to life by the amazing dancers Shay Bland, Tyler Brown, Winston Dynamite Brown, and Alaric Thomas. We were blessed and honored to have the music performed live by Mari Kimura and Liuh-Wen Ting. Alia plans to continue to work on the piece to include also As night falls, the last piece (for violin, viola, narrator, and electronic sound) in my “rose trilogy”. The result will be an evening length work, to be premiered most likely this fall – details will follow! In the meantime, please enjoy these videos from the premiere of The Bloom and the Blackness: