NOAM, a fantasy for flute and orchestra (2019)

About the work:

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Writing a work, any work, whether it is a book, a poem or a musical piece, is a very personal and intimate process.
 The creator with himself, with his thoughts, with what he knows and what he has already forgotten, with all the inner and emotional baggage that he has at the time of writing the piece.
One day, Christian Lindberg, the musical director of the Netanya Kibbutz Chamber Orchestra, called me and asked me to write a piece for flute and orchestra for concerts with flutist Sharon Bezaly. 
In my imagination I have already heard a piece full of life and joy, firmly rooted in the local music I grew up with in Israel..
I found myself writing the piece shortly after I lost a dear and beloved partner, a rare partner in my life as a musician, my late husband, Noam Sheriff.
The first inclination of the heart was to give up and say that I can't, I'm just not able to write in this situation but something inside me didn't let go and didn't let me give up.
Is the music happy? sad? angry? Screaming?
I have no answers to these questions. Sometimes I could describe in words sounds I wrote, but this time it is really an impossible task.
If I had to describe the creation in terms of Flavors that engage or not engage the palate, I would say that the dominant flavour is the bitter taste. No bitterness. bitter. Like chocolate 95 percent cocoa.
The piece has a free structure and brings aromas of the sounds of the Middle East, intervals reminiscent of Arab music as well as Jewish music and it constantly moves between the East and the West. Between the place where I live and the place that influenced me so much as a musician, Western Europe. And so was my life with Noam. Always moving between our place, the home in Israel that we loved so much, and between the place where the music we write gets resonance and meaning.
The piece is very personal and expresses the storm of emotions I was in when writing it.

Ella Milch-Sheriff

December 2018