The photograph above is by Christopher Jones, and the dancer is Xin Ying, who will perform Immigrant.

Immigrant, a re-imagination by choreographer  Virginie Mécene of one of  Maratha Graham’s lost dances, will  premiere on the Graham season titled Dances of the Mind at the Joyce Theatre in NYC, with performances on 4/3,6,9 and 13.  The music comes from Shatin’s Adventure on Mt. Hehuan, for solo bass drum and option interactive electronics, which the composer recast in collaboration with the choreographer. More info and tickets  here.

Regarding the dance, the program note mentions “There is little trace of Martha Graham’s original choreography for Immigrant. Virginie Mécène’s choreographic version of this early solo is inspired by a few photos and research into Martha Graham’s early career, made possible through a 2023/24 Fellowship from the Jerome Robins Dance Division, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.”

Regarding the music,  Adventure on Mt. Hehuan (Mountain of Joy in Chinese) is named for a mountain in Taiwan, where percussionist I-Jen Fang grew up. It is scored for solo bass drum and optional interactive electronics and is dedicated to Ms. Fang, with whom Shatin has explored the timbral worlds of percussion in collaborative detail. Ms. Fang premiered the piece in the version with interactive electronics with Shatin performing the electronics. The music speaks to the joy in the journey of timbral exploration and to its role in musical design. The title and compositional design were inspired by the mountain paintings of I-Jen’s father, and by this well-known and massive mountain in Taiwan. There is beauty and struggle in both. You can watch the premiere, with I-Jen Fang on the bass drum and Shatin on the electronics, here.

Artwork above © 2025 by SoHyun Bae

Instrumentation: Alto sax and percussion (5 temple blocks, 2 toms (low/high) snare drum Bongo (low/high) and vibraphone
Duration: 10:00
Commission: Consortium of Bent Frequency Duo Projects and saxophonists Kevin Norton, Nicole M. Roman  and Drew Whiting
Premiere: 05/07/2023, Florence Kopleff Recital Hall, Georgia State University
Performers: Jan Baker Berry (sax) and Stuart Gerber (percussion) of Bent Frequency Duo Projecct

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Program Note

Of Wells and Springs was commissioned in consortium with the lead Bent Frequency Duo Project of saxophonist Jan Baker Berry and percussionist Stuart Gerber and saxophonists Nicole M. Roman, Kevin Norton and Drew Whiting. Of Wells and Springs takes its title (and spelling of drouth) from environmental activist, writer and farmer Wendell Berry’s poem, Water . Drawn from the series Farming: A Handbook, it tells of a terrible drouth, of the narrator’s mother waiting for men to bring water from distant springs, of his fear of recurring drought and of his ‘love of wells and springs.’ He closes the poem with the line ‘My sweetness is to wake in the night after days of dry heat, hearing the rain.’ I have responded through my music to the experiences that Berry details so vividly – the fear and anguish that drouth precipitates, thejoy of the coming of rain, the worry of renewed dry spells, the relief of hearing rain. And, I have added to that the increasing severity of drouths and the obliterating floods that have become devastatingly common. Of Wells and Springs was premiered by the Bent Frequency Duo at Georgia State University on 5/7/2023. For more information, visit www.judithshatin.com.

The Atar Trio

Instrumentation: Violin, cello, piano
Duration: 6:30
Commission:  The Atar Piano Trio
Premiere:  The Atar Trio, Studio Annette in the Fleicia Blumenthal Music Center
Tel Aviv, IL
Performers: Violinist Tanya Beltser, Cellist Anton Andreev and pianist Ofer Shelley

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Program Note:

To the Bird from the Distant Land was composed in response to Hayim Nahman Bialik’s poem To the Bird (El HaTzipor) on commission from the Atar Trio. When pianist and director Ofer Shelley approached me about  a piece for an upcoming Bialik program, I was particularly drawn to this poem. Written when Bialik was just nineteen and had recently moved to Odessa, there is a strong undercurrent of homesickness for the Biblical land of Israel he imagined. The poem, addressed to a bird that serves as a bridge between the distant land and his current home, is episodic – variously referring to Bialik’s imaginings of the distant land, the Biblical Israel, in both its beauty and difficulties, while contrasting it again and again with his current perilous situation. His ruminations move back and forth, taking flight like the winging bird he calls to, yet also crashing down on his current reality. My response to the poem became a song without words, with the flight of the bird sometimes soaring, while at other times caught in the darker net of Bialik’s musings before taking wing again. To the Bird from a Distant Land was premiered by the Atar Piano Trio at Studio Annette in the Felicia Blumenthal Music Center in Tel Aviv on 6/2/2023.–JS

Instrumentation: 3-part treble choir & piano
Duration: 2:00

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Program Note

The story of Chanukah is about the fight for survival of the Jewish religion, which the Syrian-Greek King Antiochus IV tried to eradicate in favor of the worship of Zeus. A resistance movement, consisting of the priest Mattathias and his five sons, whose leader was Judas Maccabeus, sprang up. Others joined and the larger group, traditionally called the ‘Maccabees,’ prevailed.

The rededication of the Temple, which had been despoiled, led to the story of the miracle of one day’s worth of oil lasting for eight days to keep the ‘ner t’amid (eternal flame) burning. I understand this as a symbol of overcoming against overwhelming odds. Throughout history, terrible efforts have been made to destroy Judaism. Yet, as in the days of the Maccabees, it survives. I composed both the lyrics and music for Chanukah We Celebrate to contribute to the observance of this festive holiday.    –JS

Chorus:

Chanukah, we celebrate,
Chanukah, rededicate, |
Chanukah, eight nights and days,
Light the candles, see them blaze.

Verse 1

King Antiochus tried to make us bow,
But Judah and his brothers taught us to stand proud.
We fought three years so we could all be free,
And a miracle occurred when we lit the ner t’amid 

Verse 2

All the oil was in a tiny jar,
We knew it would not last, it couldn’t go far,
But on and on it burned, Its glow so bright,
And ever since we celebrate the festival of lights.

© 2024, Judith Shatin, All Rights Reserved

Flutist Megan Shanley Alger has commissioned Moon Dreams, for amplified alto flute and electronics.  It was inspired by y the many amazing women who contributed crucially to the Apollo program, including the first  moon landing. Female members of the Apollo moon mission  included Bobbie Johnson, Judith Love Cohen, Ann Dickson, and Ann Maybury, while the Apollo Space Program involved many more, listed below. Apollo 11 landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. From mathematician/engineer Ethel Heinecke Bauer to mathematician and ‘human computer’ Dorothy Jean Johnson Vaughan, an amazing  group of women rose far above the constraints that society placed on them to make critical contributions to this effort.

This project is part of Meghan’ss Making Waves commissioning project, itself an effort to continue breaking the bounds that have kept so many women composers and performers from reaching their potential. Having come of age as a composer during the 1970’s-80’s, and having served as President of American Women Composers, I have experienced these bounds myself, and am especially pleased by Ms. Alger’s project. She has commissioned a diverse groupAshi Day, Isabel Lepanto Gleicher, Shara Lunon, Niloufar Nourbakhsh  and Annika K. Socolofsky in addition to myself.

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Fasting Heart wins in the 2024 National Flute Newly Published Music Competition solo flute category, having just been published by American Composers Editions. Recorded by Patricia Spencer on her Narcissus and Kairos album, Fasting Heart was inspired by the Taoist discipline “hsin chai.” As Professor Kaltenmark explains in his Lao Tzu and Taoism, this is a technique of purification in which one transcends the act of listening with the heart (or mind) to listen with the breath (or soul). For more information visit its composition page. And you can hear it on multiple streaming services, including here.

Judith will participate with performances of her music during  New Music on the Point, June 7 & 8, with Juraj Kojs as Interim-Artistic Director, and a terrific group of performers and composers.  Her new version of Ice Becomes Water (amp. string quartet and electronics) will premiere on June 7, while Forest Music, inspired by trees of the region, for guided improv and any number of performers will be premiered on 7/8. There will be rich interactions with the environment – both as inspiration and performance venues, as well as musical experiments incorporating the natural environment.

Instrumentation: Viola & Marimba
Duration: 9:00
Commission:  Piedmont Duo/University of Virginia
Premiere: 3/26/2024, Old Cabell Auditorium, University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA
Performers: Ayn Balija (viola), I-Jen Fang (marimba)

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Program Note:
The Piedmont Duo’s innovative combination of viola and marimba inspired the title Mariola, which delightfully combines their names and also refers to a hardy shrub that grows in the Southwest of the US and can handle extremely dry conditions. It overcomes them to blossom in the summer with delicate white flowers. This provided a rich metaphor for the compositional process, from pushing ideas into shape to their gradual flourishing. The piece begins with the intensity of seeds taking root and growing. The harmonic anchor gradually changes, ultimately rising a major second as the plants reach the light, culminating in a stratsopheric registral and timbral close. I am delighted that my colleagues and dear friends Ayn Balija and I-Jen Fang, the founders of the innovative Piedmont Duo, not only spearheaded this project, but also enthusiastically collaborated in exploring the marvelous range of their instruments.―JS