The commission that led to my composing Changes was born from a chance encounter with the new music group Warped Consort in December 2004. While working on my dissertation at the University of Michigan School of Music, the group's core ensemble walked into the student lounge where I was composing to plan a recital. There, they began programming a concert that was to open an exhibit of minimalist art at the University's central campus museum. Opportunity walked through the door. All I needed to do was knock.
Changes was born from what I love of the harmonic, rhythmic, and aesthetic properties in early process, or "minimalist," music. It features a lyrical clarinet, and malismatic exchange between it and the first violin. The piece is dedicated, warmly, to the new music group Warped Consort.