The concept for infants of further life was partially inspired by Muriel Rukeyser’s A Birth — a part of her 1952 collection of six poems — particularly the following excerpt from its first two stanzas:

“How do the newborn grow? I am of them. Freshness has taken our hearts; Pain strips us to the source, infants of further life Waiting for childhood as we wait for form.

So came I into the world of all the living”

The project of this piece is to sonically invoke Rukeyser’s conception of the relationship that each of us has with our own childhood, with our own vulnerable, naked, uncertain, yet beautiful beginning. “Pain strips us to the source”; I hope to capture the moments during which our suffering confronts us and forces us back into an original state, the moments in which we curl up and our eyes well up, the moments, too, which are followed by catharsis, clarity, and promises of a new beginning. In this way, we are all merely infants of further life, masquerading (poorly, at times) as things more.

Premiered by PinkNOISE at Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater, Symphony Space, New York, NY, United States on December 5th, 2022; Performed by ensemble PHACE at Ehrbar Saal, Musik Quartier 1040, Vienna, Austria on June 30th, 2023 for the Vienna Contemporary Composers Festival.