Song for mezzo-soprano and piano

(PDF download)

Risk Not One was commissioned by beloved colleague and longtime friend, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke as part of how do I find you, a collection of songs from seventeen different composers and several lyricists and poets, exploring the gamut of human experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sasha recorded the project with pianist Kirill Kuzmin; it was released on the Pentatone label and subsequently nominated for a 2022 GRAMMY award.

At a time when life as we knew it ground to a halt and everyone was frozen in fear and uncertainty, Todd’s poem felt to me like the shock of a cattle prod. The poem joyfully shoves us toward the things that make us uncomfortable so that we might not waste the most precious commodity we have: our time on this earth.

INSTRUMENTATION: mezzo-soprano, piano

DURATION: 3:05

PAGES: 8

WORLD PREMIERE: January 30th, 2022 at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, CA as part of San Francisco Symphony’s Great Performers series. Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano; Kirill Kuzmin, piano