Program Note

A tribute to Gloria Estefan for sinfonietta and electronics
(version for chamber orchestra also available)
Duration: 9 minutes

Written for Alarm Will Sound

Program note:

During the COVID-19 pandemic – a highly unusual yet new normal, surreal and yet painfully real time – artists have been challenged to think about what community means. In an artform in which physicality is essential, how is this affected during a pandemic in which our bodies are at risk? Our connection to our physical bodies has deepened, becoming hyper-aware of every breath, every ache, and every anxiety. Furthermore, due to social distancing we haven’t been able physically connect with each other in the same ways as before, simultaneously craving and fearing each other’s human contact As society reopens, we’re all itching to get up and dance after sitting on our couches for an entire year.

Turn Your Feet Around brings the nightclub to the concert hall. Using deconstructed and warped fragments of the ever fabulous Gloria Estefan’s “Get On Your Feet,” performers have a chance to reconnect with their own physicality by dancing to wild reimagined grooves and 80s-style drum beats. Whether socially distanced or not, it’s time to get on our feet and find the rhythms and movements that have been waiting to unleash this entire year! Because as Gloria says, “Find it, I know it will pull you through.”

Many thanks to Alarm Will Sound and the Mizzou New Music Festival for premiering this piece.