Sorry, I can’t turn on my video right now... was composed (for alto saxophone and individual jingle bells on the performer’s fingers) during the coronavirus pandemic in the summer of 2020. By this point in the pandemic, I felt that there was a certain expectation for some level of normalcy in life. It was as if we were all meant to go back to our pre-pandemic lives, but through a completely virtual lens. In many ways, I felt like I was failing at normalcy and that feeling is what inspired this piece.

The music itself is not meant to be challenging. All the notes fall within the middle of the range of the instrument and most of the material is repeated. The challenge then comes with the jingle bells; easy, yet deceptively difficult...

The piece was originally composed for Wilson Poffenberger (a dear friend) for the first New Music Mosaic concert series.

For more information about Elsie, visit her composer page.