remiere City: San Francisco, California, USA Premiere Venue: The Green Room, War Memorial Hal Premiere Performer / Ensemble / Presenter: Nikki Einfeld, Soprano Michael Gordon, Guitar
My children's grandparents are from Chile, and for a long time their grandmother told me to set Pablo Neruda's poems. I'm not exactly a poetry expert, but I was drawn to Neruda's love poems for their simplicity and frankness. I chose the four poems for their reflection of the stages of love over time: adolescent feelings, idealization, the love that is a result of surviving life's struggles, and a reflective love. I want to thank my parents for babysitting my kids while I wrote these songs. I could never have done it without them.