World Premiere June 12, 2026
Hub New Music
Michael Avitabile - Flute
Gleb Kanasevich - Clarinet
Magnolia Rohrer - Violin
Jesse Christeson - Cello
Timucua Arts Foundation, Orlando, Florida, USA.
World Premiere June 12, 2026
Hub New Music
Michael Avitabile - Flute
Gleb Kanasevich - Clarinet
Magnolia Rohrer - Violin
Jesse Christeson - Cello
Timucua Arts Foundation, Orlando, Florida, USA.
(2026)
[Fl, Cl, Vln, Vc]
When thinking about the word Feathers, I recalled the image of two bald eagles engaged in an impressive courtship ritual known as the “death spiral.” In this ritual, the pair locks their talons at great height and plunges downward, spinning through the air before separating just moments before hitting the ground.
What fascinates me most about this image is the visual spectacle created by their fully extended wings: the feathers trace ever-changing shapes, generating a continuous sense of motion—a flow in which both birds seem to merge into a single body, almost choreographic and magnetic.
The piece seeks to reflect this ritual, from the initial moment in which the birds search for one another in the air, to the vertiginous spiral descent and their eventual separation. Through energy and velocity, the listener may experience the sensation of flight and the tension of that suspended, critical instant. At different moments, the birds emerge through the instrumental gestures: separated, chasing one another, converging, and moving together within this flight made possible by their feathers.
I have always been fascinated by the idea of what it means to be a bird and to fly freely. To create these aerial turns, to inhabit and shape the space itself. Feathers attempts to approach that experience—to dwell, even if only briefly, within that suspended sense of freedom.