A note from the composer:

It was truly an honour to be chosen as the 2019 winner of the Maria Anna Mozart Award. The mandate of this prize is still so clearly important to the continued effort to advance gender equity in our field. I am grateful to Dr. Jane Gordon for her commitment to this issue and her generous support of this award.

Don’t Touch the Middle Switch is a playful work that leaves a lot of room for listeners to interpret the title for themselves. There is a sense of exploration or discovery within the writing, along with unbridled moments of abandon, and passages that are more searching, yearning. There is no one way to listen to this music and no one way to understand it. I think that is what I love about the journey from the genesis of an idea, to the crafting of the piece, to finally sharing with an audience, thanks to the wonderful musicians who bring the ideas to life – we all take something different from the experience.

The title may suggest an underlying guiding narrative, but I can assure you that is not the case! The title was chosen when the piece was complete, and captured its energy in a way that felt just right. The mystery of where the title comes from specifically will remain, but the story you might tell yourself as you listen to the piece is exactly right – because it will be yours. I hope the experience of discovery is as exciting for you as it has been for me! Enjoy!