Perpetual Spark

The spark of a life filled with passion and delight, burning brightly, intensely, and without end.

(Flute/piccolo, violin, viola, cello, double bass and piano).
Total duration ca. 7 minutes (2011)
Published by Activist Music (ASCAP).
Commissioned in 2011 by The Norton Building Concert Series.
One movement work. 26 pages, 8.5" x 11".

Premiered February 21, 2012 in Chicago, IL by Fifth House Ensemble.

Audio excerpts from the live concert premiere at the Chicago Cultural Center, February 2012, performed by Fifth House Ensemble.

Also related:

Spark

(Solo piano).
Total duration ca. 7 minutes (2011)
Published by Activist Music (ASCAP).
Commissioned in 2011.
One movement work. 9 pages, 8.5" x 11".

Perpetual Spark began life as a work for solo piano simply titled Spark. It was the most challenging commission I've ever received, not because of the musical material but because of its deeply emotional significance. The piece is inspired by the life, love, energy, and heart of Dale Mara Bershad, a gifted musician who often used her talents to share the joy and wonder of musical expression with young children. Mara was very loved by a Chicago attorney and arts patron named Sherwin Abrams, who contacted me out of the blue after her untimely passing with a request for a piece in her honor. What I learned of Mara's radiant nature led me to create not a slow, elegiac piece but one that reflects her spark of a life filled with passion and delight, burning brightly, intensely, and without end.

Perpetual Spark was recorded in September 2013 by Fifth House Ensemble, for their Cedille Records 2014 CD, Excelsior, produced by Judith Sherman.

Alex Shapiro has produced a significant album of her solo piano works, including the solo version of this piece, SPARK, beautifully performed by New York pianist Adam Marks. The 2020 disc, ARCANA, has been released on Innova Recordings 041.

"brisk and lovely..."

—Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle

"luminous energy..."

—Daniel Stephen Johnson, WQXR New York

"flickers of sound amidst lyricism… a concise dazzler for sextet."

— Donald Rosenberg, Gramophone

"Alex Shapiro's 2011 Perpetual Spark has a repeating pattern that is a musical representation of sparks permeating the density of darkness. Shapiro allows them to grow quieter in the middle section so that they can evolve into a moonbeam or an idea for a new vision. For the finale, however, her delightful lyrical sparks reappear to be as dynamic and elusive as ever. The ensemble plays with absolute glee."

— Maria Nockin, Fanfare Magazine

"Shapiro alternates energetic sections of rhythmic vitality (your feet will be tapping from measure one) with slower, lyrical touches of French neo-classicism that recall the harmonic elegance of Poulenc. "

— David Abrams, Fanfare Magazine