Songs From The End Of The World

Commissioned by the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Arizona State University, Eastman School of Music, Florida State University, Metropolitan State University of Denver, the Ohio State University, Texas Tech University, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Colorado, Boulder, University of Florida, University of New Mexico, University of Oregon, University of Texas at Austin, and Western Michigan University.

World premier on November 19, 2015 at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Lindsay Kesselman, soprano. Kevin Geraldi conducting the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Wind Ensemble.

The cycle is inspired by a passage in the Odyssey in which Odysseus, shipwrecked and near death, washes up on the shore of an island belonging to the nymph Kalypso. Homer's telling treats the ensuing interlude as just another bit of exotic travelogue, one of many adventures on Odysseus' long journey home; these three songs imagine what it meant to Kalypso herself, and are sung in her voice.