Program Notes
THE BLUE ROOM (Violin Concerto) by Reena Esmail BORN: 1983, Chicago, IL
PREMIERE : This piece was commissioned by Robert Bolyard, conductor. It was premiered on April 14th, 2007 at Battell Chapel, Yale University with violin soloist Alexander Woods. INSTRUMENTATION: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, percussion, harp and strings PROGAM NOTES: Two years before I wrote The Blue Room, I had sketched out two themes that I wanted to turn into a violin concerto. It was only years later, when I was asked by conductor Robert Bolyard to write a piece for his graduation recital from Yale in 2007, that the piece actually began to take shape. The Blue Room is in two movements. The first movement contains the two themes from the initial sketch, essentially recreating a previous vision of the piece, and the second movement was my response to that vision. The title was taken from a poem called White Key, by the Poet Laureate of California, Carol Muske (the text of which I later set for choir). The line reads, “…like the light on the bed / In the blue room where I last held you.” The poem is such a poignant expression of love and loss and has resonated with me for years, since the day I first heard it. - program notes by Reena Esmail
Reena Esmail
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