[The premiere of Toward the Light (Flight 3407), a new composition by SUNY Fredonia music professor James Piorkowski that commemorates the victims of the Clarence, N.Y., plane crash of February 2009, has been rescheduled to Tuesday, Oct. 5, 8 p.m., at Rosch Recital Hall.]
It’s amazing how a single event can touch so many lives. That’s the realization guitarist James Piorkowski, a professor at SUNY Fredonia, came to as he went through the process of his latest composition, Toward the Light (Flight 3407), which commemorates the victims of the Clarence, N.Y., plane crash in February 2009.
Piorkowski will be on hand Tuesday, Oct. 5 at 8 p.m. in Rosch Recital Hall on the SUNY Fredonia campus as his new piece, inspired by a poem of the same title, is performed by his colleagues Angela Haas (soprano voice), Natasha Farny (cello) and Anne Kissel-Harper (piano) as part of a faculty recital. The event is free and open to the public.
When exploring his options for contributing to this recital, Piorkowski became inspired by a conversation with Gunilla Kester, an adult private student of his, who lost a dear friend in the ill-fated flight on that snowy night. Kester is also a writer, and she and several others had been soliciting poems and essays from people with ties to the crash about the tragedy and the emotions and ways each of their lives had been affected. The response was significant, resulting in The Empty Chair, a book containing a collection of those submissions.
Kester gave Piorkowski the book, and he was immediately moved by the various offerings, especially Toward the Light (Flight 3407), a poem written by Jane Sadowsky, another Western New York resident and one of the book’s contributors.
“This particular poem really grabbed me,” said Piorkowski, who was promoted this past spring to the rank of Distinguished Professor by the State University of New York. “It’s just an amazing poem, and I knew immediately that I had found my text, my lyric, for the piece. I started writing right away.”
After he finished the piece, however, Piorkowski realized his work on this project was not over.
“My wife and I have dear friends who lost their daughter in the crash, and I contacted them and asked if they would be willing to contact the families and friends of the victims and invite them to the performance,” Piorkowski explained. “I’ve already received replies from people who are planning to attend, some from as far away as New York City. It’s really quite touching."
Piorkowski learned a great deal during the process of creating this composition, not only in terms of the lives of the victims, but also the herculean efforts of their loved ones who used this tragedy as a rallying point to lobby Congress and President Obama to pass stricter regulations for pilot training, cited as a primary factor in the cause of the crash.
“To me, this is really the perfect kind of homage to all of those who have worked so hard to enact this change — for the benefit of us all — and to thank them. It was really written for them,” he added.
Ms. Sadowsky will also be in attendance on Oct. 5 and will read her poem to the audience before the premier of the piece.
In addition, Haas, Farny and Kissel-Harper will feature music by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff. They will also perform The Last Poems of Wallace Stevens, by the acclaimed American composer, Ned Rorem.
