For the first time ever, Anima Mechanicae: Soul of the Machine was performed LIVE in its entirety in front of an audience at the first annual Chamber Music Festival at the University of Redlands, hosted by ASTA!
I am so blessed to be a part of the new “Hill Street Quartet“, featuring violinist Irene Shiao, violist Rachel Fabulich, and cellist Anne Sherrill. We worked so hard on this piece – I was extremely privileged to have a group of really talented ladies willing to devote so much effort and time into it – and we were all just so excited to be able to make a fantastic presentation of it this past Saturday!
Now, for your enjoyment, for those of you who had to miss this performance, here’s the video from Saturday’s performance of Anima Mechanicae! This is as close to the “Director’s Cut” of this piece as it’s gotten so far… 
Update:
Just have to give a BIG shout-out to Anne (cello) and – very especially – Irene (second violin) for the AWESOME and challenging pizzicato work around the 6:00 mark! I love that the combination of the two distinct rhythmic groupings really came across! Woohoo! 
[...] a few days ago, Sarah premiered her latest string quartet piece, Anima Mechanicae: Soul of the Machine, “dedicated to the computers and robots of the future, who long to dream as the humans [...]
Absolutely wonderful music Sarah! Listened to it on James’ blog, the “dedicated to the computers and robots of the future” description matches quite well. Really well done.
Hi! Aw, thanks so much, Andrew! Really appreciate it! And… I totally agree about the similarities to the Adagio from the new TRON soundtrack…of course, this piece was actually completed in 2007…something about those computers and robots, I tell ya…
I played on the same day at the Redlands and watched your group play it. It was intense, sad, beautiful and amazing of how wonderful you played. I played “Hofstetter” String Quartet in A Major, op.3, no. 6. I was the sixth group, one of the middle school- high school groups. I was sitting on the far right column watching and listening and observing how you played. I think, excuse me, I KNOW, you guys hit all the notes correctly and played your best (better than me of course, ha ha). Just to make sure, did you compose this song?
Hi, Cynthia! Thanks so much for the nice note!
Haha, it’s a really complex piece, and I was impressed that actually the couple spots that didn’t come off quite as well as we would have liked, were hardly noticeable in the recording!
Yup, I’m proud to say I composed it! You can read notes on it (and just a few of my other pieces) here: http://programnotes.wikia.com/wiki/Anima_Mechanicae:_Soul_of_the_Machine
Thanks again!
[...] explore, and I will definitely be more faithful in posting news about my events with Dragonas, the Hill Street Quartet, and other groups I’m blessed enough to be a part [...]
[...] an official proposal yesterday from PARMA recordings in NH, for my popular string quartet “Anima Mechanicae” to be recorded by a local quartet (such as the New England String Quartet), to be included [...]