Re | ROOT

2025 Wildflower Lab

February 2 & 9, 2025

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One of our most rewarding relationships over the past few seasons has been that with the astounding collective known as Wildflower Composers.

Founded in 2018 by Erin Busch, this consortium is dedicated to forging a more equitable landscape for those creating music through amplifying the voices of female, non-binary and genderqueer composers. We’ve been privileged to perform works by several Wildflower composers, including Hannah Cai Sobel, Chloe Clark Smith, Clare Howard, Emily Ta and Ray Levitt. We were so excited by these fresh new voices that we wanted to play a larger role in their creative process by asking them if we may come along on the journey through their musical landscape. So, over a few weeks in February, we gathered with five Wildflower Composers at the Esther Boyer College of Music at Temple University and exchanged ideas through the process of composing new works for subsets of our unique instrumentation.

 
What is always most exciting about partnerships like these is the organic nature of watching ideas grow and develop, sometimes through ensemble suggestions and others through the sheer burst of creativity which so often follows a young composer hearing their music performed for the first time. The wealth of new ideas coming about in the week between our two workshops was thrilling and fascinating, and the synergy between composer and performer was truly inspiring. Most gratifying was that the experience seemed to be equally enthralling for both the ensemble and for the composers; “These past two weekends were so helpful,” said Ava Bloomfield. “Everyone was so nice, the energy was so positive. I left feeling upbuilt by the feedback I received, and I'm much more confident in my piece now!”

In addition to Ava’s work, we also enjoyed performing new pieces by Miles Cressley, Yixin Cui, Sage Kauffman and Vic Wen. Each composer put something interesting on our stands, and we’d like to think that we gave back something interesting in the form of interpretation and practical feedback. The Wildflower Composers now each have a final recording of their work as a memento of the two workshops, and we at Relâche feel privileged to have been a part of this project.