World Premiere of “Water Can Assume Any Form” by James Primosch

On November 7, 2021, I join my esteemed colleagues in Network for New Music in Philadelphia for a program of new works, For my part, I’ll be premiering Water Can Assume Any Form for tenor sax and soundtrack, the final and unfinished work by dear friend and long-time collaborator James Primosch, who left us far too soon. Water captures the rigor, mystery, and sublime beauty of Jim’s compositional practice. I like to think that the title is a metaphor for the human spirit moving between planes of existence. The work was to be a substantial five movements, Sadly, Jim completed only the first movement, and the soundtrack for the second. Knowing that he could not continue composing, he asked me to improvise my part in the second movement, so that I could present the two movements as a set. In my improvisation, I draw on motivic material in the first movement, connecting my improvisation to Jim’s notated music with the hope of channeling his ideas into my own, in what has become our most poignant collaboration.