In Friday’s (3/20) Trenton Times (N.J.), Ross Amico interviews Darryl Kubian, a violinist in the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra who composed O for a Muse of Fire, being premiered this weekend by the NJSO. The work “takes its name from the prologue to Henry V, [portraying] the king’s private struggle of conscience as he leads a vastly outnumbered army into France to unlikely victory at the Battle of Agincourt. ‘What attracted me to Henry V is one person’s ability to make a decision that holds people’s lives in the balance,’ Kubian says.… He credits his wife, JoAnna, who also plays in the orchestra, as his own muse.” Singer/songwriter Mary Fahl will perform in the piece, in an orchestration that features percussion instruments including a water phone, which “has a tub that you fill with water and there are these tines that go around the edge, and you can bow them or use mallets to strike them,” Kubian says. The piece was commissioned by the orchestra as part of its five-year New Jersey Roots project of music by Garden State composers.
Posted March 20, 2015
