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Walking is inspired by the animated short film of the same name, by Montreal-based Ryan Larkin. He was a Canadian artist and animator who rose to prominence when Walking (1968) was nominated for an Academy Award. He only created one other short film after this, entitled Street Music (1972), before his career and life began to spin out of control. He spent the next 4 decades homeless, and suffered an ongoing battle with addiction. It wasn't until 2004 that he overcame his illness and started creating animated bumpers for MTV. He passed away in 2007 from lung cancer which had spread to his brain. The film Walking is a playful and skillful study of people in motion, a spirit that I tried to capture in my piece. What's fascinating to me, in terms of the content of the film itself, is that we only get a quick glimpse of Larkin’s characters as they shuffle, saunter, and dance across the screen. These brief encounters foreshadows Larkin’s relationships and experiences with people as a homeless man. He would say years later in an interview for the film Alter Egos, “I decided it was more interesting to live on the street. At least I get to meet a hundred people a day. . . It’s kind of interesting. . . meeting all these people for just two seconds.” — Chris Thornborrow Please notify the composer of any performances, and for inquiries at: cthornrun@gmail.com