(2021) Symmetries

For Violin & Piano · 11’24”

Welcome to Follow the Score.

SYMMETRIES (2021) is a work for violin and piano in six short pieces, written for two musicians I admire enormously — violinist Pekka Kuusisto and pianist Joonas Ahonen. It was commissioned by Yarlung Artists in their honor, with the support of Russell Ward, and it opens their album Symmetria Pario: Creation (Yarlung Records, 2023), produced by Bob Attiyeh.

The piece began with a sentence from physicist Angela Olinto: “Nature expresses itself through a balance of order and chaos. Symmetries are the clearest signs that Nature has an underlying order.” That idea — balance, the conservation of energy, the way a shape can be turned and still be itself — became the six pieces you’ll hear here.

Pekka and Joonas are extraordinary in this. Writing with the two of them in mind meant I could ask for things I wouldn’t otherwise ask for, and they answered every one of them.

 

“The technical virtuosity of both violinist and pianist are immediately challenged, and we are rewarded with a feast of sonic complexities. My immediate reaction was to stand and cheer.” – Symmetria Pario: Creation in Positive Feedback (Issue 127, June 2023)

 FOLLOW THE SCORE ! CLICK HERE TO WATCH AND LISTEN TO SYMMETRIES.

Commissioned by Yarlung Artists in honor of Pekka Kuusisto and Joonas Ahonen with generous support from Russell Ward

 

Nature expresses itself through a balance of order and chaos.  Symmetries are the clearest signs that Nature has an underlying order.  Symmetries in Nature generate conservation laws.  In time, symmetries give us the powerful conservation of energy which is constantly being transformed but never vanishes. Motion through space is a constant transformation of inertia, moment, and spin.  These six pieces honor Nature and its mysteries, its language, its dance, and enchantment.

Angela Olinto
Dean, Physical Sciences Division
At the University of Chicago