The Birth of a New Concerto

I’ve premiered many Armando Bayolo scores at this point, from Pablo Casals Hall in San Juan, Puerto Rico to the Yale School of Music. But to premiere his new Clarinet Concerto, On Becoming Ungathered, with Chris Hisey and the Greater Connecticut Youth Orchestras was a special privilege.

I remember standing in front of almost one hundred of the finest young orchestral musicians in the Greater Connecticut Youth Orchestras and realizing that this would be my first concerto premiere. Things had been so busy leading up to the performance that I had not really stopped to think about what a privilege it was. The work itself is a behemoth. If you know Armando’s music, you will not be surprised to learn that the score barely fits on super tabloid paper. The orchestra is enormous: full winds including bass clarinet and contrabassoon, English horn, bass trombone and tuba, harp, piano, four percussionists, and full strings. I am probably forgetting something. Standing in the hall before rehearsal, I had the strange realization that human ears would hear this fantastical work of art for the first time.

Armando writes that the work is inspired by Carl Sagan’s idea that we are all “stardust.” The atoms that make up our bodies were forged inside stars, and because matter cannot truly be destroyed, we are, in some sense, eternal. In On Becoming Ungathered, this idea becomes musical. The concerto unfolds in two movements connected by a wild solo cadenza. The first movement is built around four elemental fanfares representing water, earth, fire, and wind. Around these forces, the clarinet dances, sings, and meditates as the surrounding musical universe begins to fragment and dissolve. The second movement transforms that material into something quieter and more reflective. Bayolo describes it as built from a “nocturne” and an “aria,” ideas reborn from the first movement the way matter is reshaped within stars. The concerto ends not in spectacle but in quiet contemplation.

There was something especially meaningful about bringing this music to life with an orchestra full of the next generation of artists. Watching these young musicians engage with a brand new work of such scale was genuinely inspiring.

On Becoming Ungathered was commissioned by The REP Project and Coastal Carolina University, and Armando dedicated the piece with gratitude and friendship. That dedication means the world to me. Every time I get to bring his music to life it is a privilege, but this one was special.

Thank you, Armando, for your unbelievable imagination and friendship.