What If…?
for violin and clarinet (2022)
Paul Sanho Kim, violin, and Alyxia Bonnett, clarinet, 2022.
Duration: 5′
Premiere: Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, Virginia, July 7, 2022. Paul Sanho Kim, violin. Alyxia Bonnett, clarinet.
As part of her 2022 exhibit “Maya Lin: A Study of Water” at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Maya Lin’s artworks “Marble Chesapeake & Delaware Bay” and “Where the Water Flows North” invited active, cooperative participation of local artists gluing marbles and pinning walls to create a visual testament to the value of nature and our interconnectedness as a community in relation to nature. Similarly, Lin’s global memorial WHATISMISSING.ORG is a call for collective action, revealing our world’s fragility but also offering solutions and inspiring a change in mindset.
In this composition entitled “What If,” the initial violin theme is based on a common “sighing” motif: two notes a step apart, played in descending order. The clarinet later takes up the theme, recycling the same pitches but adjusting the order, transforming a resigned “sigh” into a more hopeful question: “What if…?” As Maya Lin asks in WHATISMISSING.ORG: “What if we ate lower down the food chain?” “What if we shrink our suburban and urban footprint?” This duet invites an individual and collective shift in mindset away from a sense of resignation and toward more concrete action for a sustainable future.
What If…? was written for and premiered at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art’s associated poetry reading event Water Will Not Make Tears for Water on July 7, 2022 with former Virginia Poet Laureate Luisa Igloria, featuring the composer on violin and Alyxia Bonnett on clarinet.
Paul Sanho Kim 