Leilehua Lanzilotti

for Toshiko — for violin, cello, and piano (2022)

Commissioned by The Noguchi Museum. duration 20’

This project is supported in part by Chamber Music America's Artistic Projects Program, funded through the generosity of the Howard Gilman Foundation; by the American Composers Forum through the 2021 McKnight Visiting Composer Program; and by Marble House Project, a not-for profit organization.

I. to see—
II. to touch—
III. to sound—
IV. to you—

for Toshiko was written in honor of an upcoming retrospective exhibition of the artist Toshiko Takaezu at the Noguchi Museum, Takaezu: Worlds Within. The work explores the shifting resonances of Toshiko Takaezu’s bronze bells, particularly those at her former New Jersey home. Additionally, the second movement honors Rainforest Bell, sounded in memory of Tessa Butler, Seattle, Washington.

From Takaezu’s Smithsonian interview, she describes the bells in her garden:

“They’re all—they’re all made. Well, I was working in terms of sound and form, and I always feel that plants and everything has sound. And so I was working with the idea of—and all my pieces, just about almost all, they have sound in it, and that sound came by an accident but it’s still a sound. Now, I feel that it’s very important to be able to see things visually—the important part is to see things visually. And then the second to me is that if you see things—and that’s why you see children touch things all the time, because the second is touching. And the third to me is sound. But it doesn’t need [to be] in that sequence, but it’s all connected.”

Upcoming Performances

Sunday, March 24, 2024 — Longleash, World Premiere, The Noguchi Museum, Long Island City, NY