Joe Pazanowski performs “Familiar” at University of Miami Frost School of Music
November 9, 2019
“Familiar” is a piece that grew out of my most recent consortium project for solo multiple percussion with speaking, led by Kevin Keith. The idea of the piece was to use storytelling to evoke the idea of “home” and how “home” changes over the course of one’s life.
My dear friend and colleague, Joe Pazanowski, performed “Familiar” on his solo recital on November 9 at the Frost School of Music. His performance was so genuine and heartfelt, and his musicianship really shone through. Congratulations on this performance, Joe!
Program Note: “Familiar” is about the idea of home and storytelling with a list of some of my favorite memories of what I have considered to be “home.” This is told from the perspective of how our own experiences of home change over the course of our lives. The concept of home to me is not necessarily a physical location, but instead, it is like a permanent bread crumb trail that you can follow throughout your life and return to emotionally, mentally, and perhaps physically as well. Ultimately, I think home is a place where you can find love, comfort, and security at any point in your life. Home is something that needs to be nurtured, and as long as you take care of it and continue to ground yourself in that idea of home, whether it is with people, a location, or a feeling, then that home in return will take care of you.