Intersection was commissioned by Alexis Seah as a way to showcase our artistic collaboration and friendship over the last several years. Alexis and I shared two years at Oklahoma State University while I was pursuing my BA in music, and she was studying her MM in saxophone performance. I was fortunate enough to take a couple semesters of technique lessons where she quickly became an important force in my collegiate music education. A few years later, Alexis requested a piece, and she came up with the idea of using folk songs to tie our experiences together. As Alexis is a Singaporean student and I had never lived further than an hour from Tulsa, Oklahoma, this intersection of ideas and interests was rather unique and gave us a lot of perspectives to work with.

I eventually settled on a theme and variations based on an artificial folk song, drawing inspiration from prominent songs for each of us. I chose to use the opening gesture from “Singapura, Oh Singapura” (Singapura is Malay for “Singapore”) at Alexis’ request to represent the unique natural beauty of Singapore and it’s rich cultural tradition. I combined this with Johnny Cash’s “I Walk the Line” to represent my hometown of Okmulgee, as Cash’s masterful song was a favorite of my late maternal grandfather. I chose it specifically to represent the gritty but honest reality of living in a small town in Oklahoma. But this material wasn’t quite enough on it’s own, as Woody Guthrie’s seminal “This Land Is Your Land” found it’s way in, both as a musical adhesive and to celebrate and acknowledge the capabilities for cross-cultural exchange and collaboration in an America that encourages diversity.