Migrations is written for and dedicated to the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. The title refers not only to the migration of birds or animals from one region to another, but also to the definition of migration as it appears in chemistry - the nonrandom movement to an atom or radical from one place to another within a molecule.
Live recording - 7.11.97
Aspen Contemporary Ensemble
flute
clarinet in Bb
violin
cello
piano
percussion (bass drum, 5 temple blocks, 1 pair bongos)
Duration: 10 minutes
Premiere: July 11, 1997
Aspen Contemporary Ensemble at the Aspen Music Festival, Colorado
Winner, 2002 New Music Delaware Composition Competition
The Washington Post | Daniel Ginsberg
"The players capped off the concert with a gripping account of Alexandra Gardner's Migrations, a pungently attractive ensemble piece.
Cellist Ignacio Alcover made strong contributions, while conductor Robert Pound was there to keep it's bracing effects and textures in balance."
San Francisco Classical Voice | Edward Ortiz
"The festival's closing work was Gardner's cinematic Migrations, a potent, 10-minute work
whose glissandos on strings and chord clusters on the piano grew more expansive, underscoring a
surprising evolution from one musical idea to the next. It was, by turns, highly lyrical music and
provocative of thought."