Program Note

The Glam Seduction was written with the intent of making an analogy amongst
virtuosic classical playing in the (mostly romantic) style of
performer-composers such as Liszt and Paganini, modern classical music, and
“glam rock” from the 1980s era of heavy metal music such as Van Halen. The
Glam Seduction begins with a modern music re-write, infused with more funky
notes, of one of the most notorious and outrageous guitar solos of all time,
the culmination of all that was the riotous excess of the 1980s; Eruption,
by Eddie Van Halen. The piece continues with an ascending scale pattern that
rears its bleached and frizzed-out head two more times, thereby delineating
different musical sections, and signifying a return to the beginning of the
form. In The Glam Seduction, each member of the ensemble gets their own solo
in which to “rock out” heavy metal style. The Glam Seduction was
commissioned by the BMI Foundation, Inc./ Boudleaux Bryant fund for eighth
blackbird. – Nicholas Photinos