Ghosts of Cluny

The Benedictine Abbey of Cluny, established in 910 by William I of Aquitaine, was the leading center of monasticism in the Middle Ages and boasted the largest church in Christendom prior to the 16^th-century reconstruction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.  Today only the bell tower of the church and a fraction of the great abbey remain, having been devastated by plundering during the French Revolution.  Otherworldly echoes of the millennium-old ruins resound in Ghosts of Cluny, a piece which evokes both the sacredness and the immense acoustic space of the former monastery.

The work was realized in the IMPACT Center at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and was named a Finalist in the International Composition Competition “Città di Udine,” ninth edition.