It can take a little while to answer the simple question, what are you working on right now? On the drafting table now is a quintet in an emerging series joining a string quartet with a very different instrument. The first two were Korean traditional instruments – Mudang for p’iri and string quartet, Nonghyun for gayageum and string quartet. Now, it’s a piece for percussion and string quartet. And not marimba, but unpitched (like drums) and slightly pitched (like pieces of wood and empty bottles) instruments. These pieces challenge me to stretch the quartet in new directions, and challenge players to realize the sounds I imagine. The music so far is both mystical and earthy – income ways a continuation of my fascination with the traditional music of Korea. I’ve been so fortunate in my collaborators on these projects – the quartet Ethel and p’iri virtuoso gamin; the Borromeo Quartet and gayageum master Ji Aeri; and now, I’m back with the Borromeo and percussion wizard Ian Rosenbaum. But the project began with players the South Dakota Symphony, where I was composer-in-residence last year. It will premiere in Sioux Falls in April 2021.