My piece “Lady in Blue” will receive its world premiere. – I was glad to give voice to poetry about one of the most painful experiences a woman can face. It is not an experience with which I am personally acquainted. But Ntozake Shange‘s words about abortion tapped a deep resonance within me. I was 16 years old when I first read these words. At the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts my friend and classmate Gloria Williams felt compelled to dance this poetry to life. She asked me to compose the music. The music came to me instantaneously, as if a desperate woman was singing this song right into my ear. The words, “and nobody came, cuz nobody knew” still strike me. The physical pain, the blood, the intense fear, the profound loneliness in a keeping such an unbearable secret: this is a trauma that maybe never heals. Like I said, it’s not an experience with which I am personally acquainted. But it resonates deeply for me, not just because I’m a woman, but because I’m a human being.