School of Music

Assistant Professors Jackie Glazier and Marissa Olegario perform “intertwine” at the Tucson Botanical Gardens. The composition by Los Angeles-based artist Sarah Gibson was inspired by MJ Levy-Dickson’s bird’s nest drawings. Gibson writes “I imagine these two parts as a mother bird and a baby bird as the latter gradually learns now to leave the nest.”

intertwine for Bass Clarinet in B-flat & Bassoon (dbl. Melodica)

Composed by Sarah Gibson
Commissioned by the Rossini Club and Marissa Olegario

Jackie Glazier, Bass Clarinet in B-flat
Marissa Olegario, Bassoon (dbl. Melodica)

MJ-Levy Dickson is a Nantucket-based artist, who has dedicated her career to exploring the connection between the natural earth and emotion. Collecting various birds’ nests on her walks on the island inspired her bird’s nest watercolors.

Sarah Gibson is a Los Angeles based composer and pianist whose works draw on her breadth of experience as a collaborative performer with a deep interest in the creative process across various artistic mediums. She has received honors and recognitions such as the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s Sound Investment composer, American Composers Orchestra Underwood New Music Readings, Copland House Residency, Victor Herbert ASCAP award, and a Chamber Music America Grant. 

“In her artwork, I was instantly attracted to the intimacy of design in both her interpretation of the birds nests and also the intricacies of the birds’ work. The continuous, although sometimes circuitous lines could easily be related to musical lines and the collaborative nature of a duo. Working with two instruments in the reed family – and another reed-y sounding instrument, the melodica – I imagined these two parts as a mother bird and a baby bird as the latter gradually learns how to leave the nest.” — Sarah Gibson

Gibson is the Lead-Teaching Artist for the esteemed Nancy and Barry Sanders Los Angeles Philharmonic Composer Fellowship Program. Sarah is Assistant Teaching Professor in Composition at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the College of Creative Studies and Music Department where she is the director of the Ensemble for Contemporary Music.

Filmed at the Tucson Botanical Gardens and produced by Arizona Arts Live.

>> RELATED: Performing Dendrochronology: Tree-Ring Music for Three Woodwinds