05/09/2026
NEW MUSIC ALERT 😍
..still, we lean by Erin Spencer
Program Notes: When writing this piece, I was inspired by these words by Tara Mohr on her blog post Living with Longing: “Longing is, according to one official definition, a prolonged unfulfilled desires.
Do you know any humans that live without prolonged unfulfilled desires? I do not.
Longing for more success, longing for a different financial reality, longing for recognition for our work, longing for community, longing for a more harmonious family life, longing for adventure or change, longing for peace and rest. We live, we long.
We all have different sensations associated with longing. For me, it’s an ache in the chest— an uncomfortable feeling, sometimes a subtly uncomfortable one, sometimes more intensely so. It can have a restlessness to it. It can be a fire that motivates action. It can devolve quickly into inner critic narratives if I let it…
Longing is a core part of the human experience for the most beautiful of reasons: within each of us is an essence that longs for more love, more goodness, more gentleness, more beauty, more justice, more connection, more luminosity. What feels like home to our souls, to our deepest selves, is experiencing those qualities in full expression, everywhere and in their totality.”
The piece opens with an improvisatory section in which each part explores its own musical ideas independently, giving every player space for individual expression. The separation of voices evokes a sense of loneliness and disconnection, as though each musician is searching alone. This fragmented texture gradually builds toward a shared chord, where everyone finally plays together - revealing that we are united in our yearning to belong to something larger than ourselves.
...still, we lean by Erin SpencerSlippery Rock University Flute EnsembleDr. Cassandra Eisenreich, DirectorProgram Notes: When writing this piece, I was inspi...
