BRN Duo

BRN Duo Dedicated Works

The three pieces listed here were commissioned by the BRN Duo and are in the process of being premiered and recorded.

Leaves by Lisa Bost-Sandberg

While the word “leaves” for many first brings to mind the foliage of a plant, it is also a rather poetic term for the pages of a book or of music. The two sides of a plant leaf display two aspects of life—the aesthetic boldly-colored front that reaches toward the light and the utilitarian back of mottled colors and tactile veins.  Leaves of music or words mirror this, as turning a page may reveal a completely different character, challenge, or sense of being. Two sides of a leaf are related, connected—but projecting a different sense of purpose or perspective.

Leaves was commissioned by Brian Nozny as part of a surprise 10th wedding anniversary present for his wife, Rachel, and I could not have been more honored to be part of this special project! 

– Lisa Bost-Sandberg

Arlequin et Columbine by Lane Harder

When Brian Nozny approached me with a commission for a work for alto flute and vibraphone for him to perform with his wife, Rachel, on the occasion of their tenth wedding anniversary, I was honored but, even more, I was nervous.  I am a great admirer of Brian’s music, so to put my own music into his hands for him to body and sinew to it is an act of higher-order faith.  In spite of this psychological leap that I’ve had to make, I am extremely grateful to him for the opportunity to collaborate with him on such a meaningful project.  This work has given me an immense amount of joy, and writing it was almost effortless in a way that recent works have not always been.

I wrote this music at La Schola Cantorum in Paris while teaching at the European American Musical Alliance Summer Institute in 2016 in rooms once inhabited in various capacities by Erik Satie, Edgard Varese, Olivier Messiaen, and Darius Milhaud.  I am grateful for their collective spirit and the spirit of our summer program which inhabits the music and, I hope, dwells in between the notes.

In this piece, I imagine Brian and Rachel as Arlequin and Columbine, characters in the 17th-Century Comedie-Italienne.  The work can be seen as a Neo-Classical (c.1920’s) gloss on musical depictions of scenes from this historic troup, with references to Impressionism, folk music, and jazz. 

– Notes by Lane Harder, July 2016

Together by Adam Silverman

This piece was commissioned as an anniversary gift from percussionist Brian Nozny to his flute-playing spouse, Rachel, and, as a reflection of marriage, is an exploration of “togetherness” in which two musical instruments combine in such an extreme manner as to blur the identity of each to make a unified whole.  The instruments double one another as the piece begins, but as the music progresses, they come to function as cooperative partners, exchanging roles of leader and follower.  Some aspects of the music were inspired by Dutch composer Louis Andriessen as well as by the percussion compositions of Brian Nozny, who is an inspiration to me and a behind-the-scenes collaborator on nearly every percussion piece I compose. 

– Adam Silverman