for Marie, Elsa, Ryan and Eudes
Flying to Australia from the US is an emotionally taxing experience. Going to Melbourne to work with Quiver Ensemble on granini di luce beccucciati da uccelli di silenzio, I was sitting in front of a woman who repeated at least 100 times over 15 minutes "it's so pretty" as we landed at Sydney airport. This mantra resonated in me years afterwards until, while in residence at the Chateau Salon in Arcueil, I wrote les demoiselles, dedicated to Olivier Salon, one of my favorite French writers whose sense of prosody inspires me a great deal.