Loadbang is set to give the world premiere of Michael Hersch’s new vocal cycle, ‘that I wanted to find you here.’

This 30-minute score was written in the period immediately following the composers recovery from a near-death experience early last year. The work sets texts by Abdellatif Laâbi, Anja Utler, Stav Poleg, and Shane McCrae.

Of this piece Hersch says, “In many respects, that I wanted to find you here, commissioned by loadbang, is very much in dialogue with my recent opera and we, each, but instead of an attempt to engage with the broader currents of and within relationships, this new sextet cuts directly into personal spaces… The most terrifying part of the ordeal was not, in fact, landing on that line between life and death, but simply the lack of agency and day-to-day clarity during that emergent period upon stepping back from it; restriction, confusion, and misapplication of power reigning overall. These things still haunt…”

Baritone Ty Bouque is the lead vocalist of loadbang, he is joined by fellow enesemble member and double bassist Will Yage, as well as violinist Miranda Cuckso. This piece is Hersch’s first collaboration with loadbang.

The premiere of ‘that I wanted to find you here’ is set to take place at Columbia University’s St. Paul’s Chapel on Dec. 8, at 8 p.m.