Death Valley Junction (2010)

Premiere
June 19 2010
Santa Fe New Music
New Mexico History Museum, Santa Fe, NM

Composer note
Death Valley Junction is a sonic depiction of the town of the same name, a strange and isolated place on the border of California and Nevada. The "town" is home to three people and consists of a café, a hotel, and a fully functional opera house. Death Valley Junction is dedicated to Marta Becket, the woman who resurrected and repaired the crumbling opera house in the late 1960's and performed one-woman shows there every week until her retirement last year at age 86. The piece begins with a sparse, edgy texture — the harsh desert landscape — and collapses into a wild and buoyant dance. Marta Becket once compared herself to the single yellow flower that is able to, against all odds, flourish in the desert. This piece attempts to depict some of her exuberant energy and unstoppable optimism, and is dedicated to her.

— Missy Mazzoli