ARTIST'S STATEMENT

Premiered by Andrea Ábel, Chao-Chih George Chen, Emmett Edwards, Leona Liu, Dylan Kinneavy, and Diego Martinez, conducted by Lisa Moore, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, June 2025

Seattle Opera is proud to present performances from the Jane Lang Davis Creation Lab, featuring four new 20 minute works by Washington State composers and librettists. The operas presented in this video are Blaze, If Only I Could Give You the Sun, Of a Feather, and Together. These performances conclude a multi month development project that included a table reading, music workshop, and support from composer and librettist mentors. Learn more at seattleopera.org/creationlab

Select Recordings from the 2021 Cascade Conducting Masterclass and Composers Workshop

“The Allegory of the Cave” by Elise Winkler Performed by Kyle Rappe (marimba) and James Preucil (viola) Elise and Kyle are two of my best friends. Kyle and I wanted to find an epic piece to play together so Elise arranged her saxophone-marimba duet for viola-marimba. It was an incredibly challenging piece and we had a blast learning and performing it. This recording was from our dress rehearsal. Program notes written by Elise: In his Allegory of the Cave, Plato describes a scenario in which a group of men are prisoners. They are chained to the bottom of a cave, forced to look only at the wall in front of them. They lived enshrouded from reality, as their only perceptions of it are the shadows they see on the wall. Because the cave is the only life the prisoners have ever known, they have no concept of anything better, and therefore no desire to leave. However, one prisoner is eventually freed, and he views the world as it truly is for the first time. Although the sunlight hurts his eyes initially when he reaches the surface, he eventually adjusts, enabling him to see the stars, the moon, the sun, and himself. With his new understanding, the man believes his new life to be superior to the one he lived before, and he goes back to the cave to enlighten the prisoners of his discoveries. Because of his exposure to the sun, the man is blind in the cave, and the prisoners believe that the outside world has harmed him. They are therefore threatened by what they do not know, and never leave the cave. Within my composition, there are two scales that the piece is structured upon. The first scale is nearly octatonic, and relatively based in G minor, and it represents the cave and its inhabitants. The second scale is an E major scale, with both a major and minor third, and it represents the prisoner who is freed and his discovery of the outside world. As the piece goes on, the two scales show themselves further and further in their entirety, as more of the cave and the outside are understood by the freed man. Additionally, the two scales become more intertwined toward the end of the piece, as the freed man tries to convince the prisoners to leave the cave. The instrumentation for this piece was inspired by David Maslanka’s Songbook for Saxophone and Marimba. Although the saxophone and marimba are vastly different in both their sound and technique, they complement each other extremely well. The full, melodic nature of the former and the warm resonance of the latter allow for a unique combination of timbres, and a fascinating quality of sound. If you are interested in purchasing music for this piece, contact me via the email in my bio and I will put you in touch with Elise.