Pilgrimage -  “a journey or search of moral or spiritual significance." 

Baptism - "a trying or purifying experience, potentially of thought and character.”

I recently returned from my own two-week pilgrimage to my home state of California this month. I went with some friends to climb the 14,179 ft snow-capped peaks of Mt. Shasta, and to baptize myself in the spectacular and sacred Klamath Native American site of Crater Lake - which the tribe used for vision quests for centuries. It was a welcome bookend to one of the most demanding years of my professional life and I am a better man for having done it. 

I am not entirely sure what I was searching for this trip, but I suppose some part of me was looking for a little perspective on the year’s events - big concerts, new faculty appointments, working on CD edits etc. In short, I was looking to do something legitimately ‘hard,’ as opposed to something merely tedious or stressful; to better understand the distinctions between the three.

I’ve been ascending the peaks of California since I was a teenager and it was good to return home. Climbing a mountain has a funny and helpful way of trivializing a lot of things in life. You are forced to contemplate the possibility of your -or your companion’s- demise; to push yourself by overcoming pain, nausea, fatigue, and sleep deprivation; to ponder infinity in comparison to your own worldly aspirations. I find that climbing is a good way to take time each year to do these things in a sustained way, lest one get absorbed in the daily ups and downs of the rat-race.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip. We reached the summit of Mt. Shasta with many adventures along the way, met numerous travelers going through life in numerous ways (model scale train enthusiasts, Spencer: The world’s alleged best waiter, a nostalgic widow, a petrified but trash-talking cliff jumper, etc.). And I can think of no better way to baptize oneself than the way we took a 15-foot leap of faith into the purifying 38 degree water of Crater Lake. 

As the summer winds down and I prepare for a new concert season, I am thankful to be alive, to have good friends and colleagues, and to keep searching for a place to do all things tedious, stressful, hard, and beautiful with this gift of music. I’ll meet you there. -Thomas

Salt Creek, California - This is something I’m working on. It’s a movement of what will eventually be a set of sketches called “Scenes from America”. This movement is called “Salt Creek, California,” which is a beach from my adolescence that I have (mostly) fond memories of (pictured to the right). The outer sections use alternating measures of 7/16+5/16 which can also be heard as ¾ with syncopated accents (4+3+3+2; but that’s messier to write). 

This was commissioned by Yale alum and Canadian guitarist Bruno Roussel for a repertoire book he is publishing in Canada. More coming soon, let me know what you think! 

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UPDATED 3/8/2011:  

A friend once told me “if you don’t like a piece, make it better." I’ve since decided to revise this piece to better reflect the range of feelings I have about Salt Creek beach in California. So, this is the new draft I’m working with. A bit more contemplative and longing than the original: Walks with girlfriends as the whitewash nips at your feet, dropping into a wave at daybreak, philosophizing about life over a bonfire, watching the sunlight spread across the water as it sets, and nostalgia for relationships come and gone. I think that’s all represented here now in a way it wasn’t before, and I hope you agree that it is in fact, better.  

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