Program notes:
If I were to talk about the piece in detail, it might give away certain aspects that I’d rather have the listener experience in real time (as opposed to being told what they’re going to hear). What I would like to say about the piece is that I was extremely happy to have been asked by my longtime wonderful friend and colleague, Augusta Read Thomas, to write the piece, and to be commissioned by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition. It is indeed an honor. Thus it was with great joy and enthusiasm that I composed …to quiet the mind….
When one practices meditation, one is hoping to quiet the mind. However, it is a well known fact that it can be very difficult to achieve this quieting of the mind.
Very often as we begin to practice meditation, we find that our mind immediately wanders, and often we view that as a failure. Interestingly enough, that is not a failure, rather it is part of the process of staying on the path to finding a way to quiet the mind. As we improve our ability to mediate and to find those moments of quiet or emptiness of thoughts, we naturally begin to wonder when the next wave of intrusive thoughts will come and wipe out our inner stillness of quiet mind!
Be open. Have no pre-conceived notions. Is stillness actually still, or is it energy that has been slowed down beyond perception?
Brad Lubman's piece ...to quiet the mind... premiered with the Grossman Ensemble on September 30, 2023.