Birthday Rag for Tom

Birthday gifts are often something of a challenge to choose. Commissioning a piece of music for Tom’s birthday was a unique way to show the love, gratitude and appreciation my good friend Dalia bears for her husband. This work was a surprise gift from her to Tom, and the only parameters she suggested to me were a duration of about three minutes, the instrumentation for clarinet and piano and a request that the piece acts as a nod to life in a gentle dance-like manner with a tinge of melancholy.
Elena Kats-Chernin