frog friends | Akshaya Avril Tucker

frog friends
A preliminary description, on sounds (in imagination and memory) from Western Massachusetts, where I grew up. Miraculously, while writing this piece, I heard a frog croaking outside my partner's parents' house in Oregon (in the winter). It was a beloved punctuation in time, with each silence notably irregular.

The piece starts with two frog buddies hanging out on a pond in the evening, observing the world around them, the sounds echoing over the water, the vast sky…

Later, we walk towards a chorus of peepers in the beaver pond at night. Upon hearing us coming, they cautiously diminuendo. But we stand in silence, waiting. Soon, hundreds of tiny frogs call together, each in their own tempo. Occasionally, a bullfrog calls.

AKSHAYA AVRIL TUCKER (b. 1992)
Akshaya Avril Tucker is a composer who draws inspiration from the music and dance traditions of South Asia, having trained as a cellist and Odissi dancer from a young age. She explores meditative, gestural and effervescent soundscapes, especially in her works for strings. Her music has been performed by Brooklyn Rider, A Far Cry, members of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Salastina Music Society, Duo Cortona, Third Coast Chamber Collective, Hindustani vocalist Saili Oak, and many others. Her recent commissions include works for Brooklyn Rider (co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall), Carpe Diem String Quartet, and WindSync. In 2019, she won an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award. Originally from Western Massachusetts, Akshaya is currently based in Los Angeles where she is pursuing her doctorate in composition at the University of Southern California, studying with Ted Hearne, Nina Young, and Don Crockett. She holds an M.M. in Composition from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.A. in Music from Brown University. She is an alumna from the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music (2017-2018), and a member of the second cohort of GLFCAM’s Composing Earth, in 2022-2023.

CREDITS
Soprano Saxophone: Marina Sakellakis
E-flat Trumpet: Kenken Gorder

Recording/Editing/Mixing Engineer: Elise Etherton
Producers: Jacob Feldman, Sarah Hetrick, & Connor O’Toole
Photography: Jack Kloecker

www.kenkengorder.com
www.kenkengorder.bandcamp.com