Concerts from the Library of Congress developed the Boccaccio Project to provide some artistic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ten composers were commissioned to write brief solo works, with the remotely recorded pieces to be premiered online in June 2020.

Premiere Date: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 2020 at 8:00 PM

Composer Miya Masaoka has been paired with cellist Kathryn Bates of the Del Sol Quartet to write a new work for solo cello, entitled Intuit (a way to stay in this world).

About the work

This piece begins to push at the liminality of microtonal ways of playing within underlying tonal centers. How to balance dynamic range and tone color/timbre within a contemporary practice? What is sacrificed, what is gained in such a scenario? In this piece, there are limited modalities for the performer to control and negotiate the suggested and indicated delicate balance of these parameters in the score.

Just as this musical balance is negotiated, so is the balance of our lives in lockdown. This piece is a positive and optimistic hope for a way to be present in the outside world of lockdown, and a wish to find a healthy balance between our own interiority and the outside world, which, under such extraordinary circumstances, we seek relief.
~ Miya Masaoka

Learn more about the artists

• Miya Masaoka, composer [PDF]
• Kathryn Bates, cellist
• Del Sol Quartet