Still Kicking (2022)
for solo clarinet, 15 minutes
Dedicated to virtuoso clarinetist, Chester Brezniak
American Composers Alliance,15 minutes
Still Kicking was written during the pandemic for clarinetist extraordinaire, Chester Brezniak, for whom the composer’s Four Humors was also written and later recorded 20 years ago.
The piece is in five short movements: Prelude, Tango, We Who Are Left, Ghost Waltz, and Klez for Brez. The third movement is the longest and is an elegiac reflection on the losses experienced in 2021 by those of us remaining. The klezmer movement is life-affirming, meant to be exhuberant and fun, and has an opportunity for improvisation, a favorite musical activity of Chester who also contributed numerous suggestions for the klezmer movement as well as for the other four.
