As an undergrad student, I had the wonderful opportunity and unparalleled honored of being able to study privately with Eric Ewazen. Our contact was limited by distance, as he was in NewYork and I was in Oklahoma, but we made it work with telephone contact and emails. One day, Eric surprised me with an invitation to come to Indiana and have face to face lessons for a few days while he was in residence at a university there. I was very excited about this prospect, but was short of funds to go. That problem was taken care of by Rose Blunk, a wonderful and very generous member of the church I was attending at that time. I was so surprised and grateful, that I promised her I would write her a piece for her instrument, piano.
I started the piece immediately and worked out a very modest sketch that I soon sat aside and forgot. In 2007, I was searching for a piece of poetry to do for another project, and stumbled upon this sketch. I immediately felt a sense of guilt for putting this off. I decided to put it on my writing schedule to complete. Fast forward to 2010, I finally decided to just make the time and complete the piece.
Mountains and Valleys is dedicated to my good friend, Jeongwon Ham, who voluntarily recorded several pieces on my first CD. This piece is my gift to her and my show of appreciation to all of the pianists who have helped me over the years.
