The Jerusalem-based Atar Piano Trio, directed by pianist Ofer Shelley, has commissioned a trio for their new Bialik-inspired program. Rather than create a song, I am composing a piano trio called To the Bird From a Distant Land, inspired by Bialik’s iconic poem To the Bird, written when the poet was just 19. The bird forms the connecting link from the narrator’s home in the harsher climate of Europe, to the land of Israel, though neither location is mentioned specifically. While the narrator nonetheless wonders whether some of the difficulties of his current situation are to be found there as well, the dream of this land, and the hope for a peaceful, welcoming existence there are central.
