at a gray sky floating between the dirt (world premiere, LA Phil commission with generous support from Ellen and Arnold Zetcher)
About this Piece
Seventeen-year-old Andrew Moses is a composer and clarinetist from Los Angeles, California. His compositions have been performed by ensembles such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), wild Up, and the Calder Quartet.
Andrew has been a Composer Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic since 2013 and continues in 2015-2016 as an LA Phil Senior Fellow. His chamber works have been performed in concert by the Argus Quartet as part of the 2015 Hear Now Festival of New Music in Los Angeles, by wild Up at the Regent Theater as part of the Next on Grand Festival, by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) at the 2016 Ojai Music Festival, as part of the Yellow Barn Young Artists Program in Vermont, and by the Los Angeles Master Chorale and Los Angeles Philharmonic chamber ensembles. The LA Phil has premiered two short orchestral works of his at Walt Disney Concert Hall, in 2014 and ’15, respectively. Past teachers and mentors include Andrew Norman and James Matheson; he currently studies with David Ludwig at the Curtis Institute of Music.
As a clarinet student of Dr. Margaret Thornhill, he was a winner of the 2014 Young Musicians Foundation National Concerto Competition, the Torrance Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, the Beverly Hills Auditions, and the 2013 Midland National Young Artist Competition. As part of iPalpiti Musicales, Andrew performed a solo recital last year at the home of Charles and Susan Avery Fischer. He has been featured twice on From the Top on NPR and is a recipient of From the Top’s Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award. He has performed over 25 solo recitals in the last two seasons in Southern California. Andrew has participated in four seasons of the Yellow Barn Young Artists Festival in Vermont (as both composer and clarinetist); and he is a Junior of iPalpiti Artists International. He has been heard three times as part of Sundays Live from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and has appeared as concerto soloist with several area orchestras, performing as concerto soloist at Walt Disney Concert Hall at the age of 11.
Committed to serving the community through arts leadership initiatives, the California Senate joined in recognizing his contributions to the local arts and presented Andrew with the Making a Difference Award. He also enjoys taekwondo (he is a third degree blackbelt), visual arts, and his community of faith.
Andrew Moses provided the following as commentary on his new piece:
it’s in the moist dirt,
being punched in the gut
and the dust (dirt) in the air above,
the clouds, also,
and the sun with the clouds,
so far,
a cold river over smoothed, gray rocks (from
fresh snow melt)
I lay with it
washing over me,
over the stones pressing up against my back
drowning in it,
drinking from it, slowly,
in a cave
dripping cold water
(in the rainforest) pressing my
hand up against its side
to feel it.
eating the dirt.
stepping bare-footed
into endless mud,
loving someone.
losing someone.