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        This work was commissioned by Carnegie Hall for Ensemble Connect – a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. The World Premiere will be presented at Skidmore College on February 13, 2026, with a repeat performance on February 17, 2026, at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. This work was made possible with support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

        Commissioner exclusivity applies


        Unavailable for performance.

        • 1.0.1(bcl).0/0.1.1.0/pf
        • 14 min

        Programme Note

        Composer note

        This work is a sequel to my 2022 octet, Breaking. The primary sonic material in both works is announced in the titles, and when I was composing Breaking, I could already hear Broke on the sonic horizon. As with Breaking, the first two books in Chinua Achebe's African Trilogy, Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease, provide a touchstone for engaging with Broke, which is about hearing struggle as the performers enact it.

        Along with the realization of this new work comes the further realization that we are less at ease than ever — and part of being "broke" involves the fear of being hurled from the precipice of precarity to the desert of despair. As for the question of who "broke" it, often enough (but not always), the mirror is the place to look for answers.

        At the least, this new work uses unpredictability and nonlinearity to refuse complacency, and this is perhaps what we as world citizens need right now — a way to live without a fixed and comfortable psychological abode as we weather our storms.

        — George Lewis

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