The Daughter

From Carmen

"This poem was written when my daughter was very small. It occurred to me that bringing a daughter into the world meant having to prepare her and also write her a charm or a spell that could protect her from the world. Being a girl is such a unique and magical and fraught experience, so I wanted to honor it and also build her a little bit of safety."

When writing music for The Daughter, I tried to capture each of the characters the poet was introducing throughout the work - 4 generations of daughters. Through solos in each of the voice parts, lines of text are highlighted and reimagined as thoughts or references to each respective daughter. The piece was written for and premiered by Glass City Singers in Toledo, OH.