Cats in the Kitchen was originally scored for flute, oboe, meows, purrs, cracked eggs, sliced onions, buttered toast, sizzling skillets, spoons, knives, pepper grinder, toaster oven, pots, pans, draining dishwater, and pretty much everything else in the kitchen “sync.” The sound score also features feline duets and trios, cat food crunches, waterdrums, and my partner Charlotte Bell speaking to her beloved cat, Fiona McGee, who sadly passed on shortly after this piece was composed. The flute and oboe playfully dance and weave with the sounds and each other, sometimes in imitation or dialogue with the cats, and at other times cooking up their own fanciful filigree.

I.   Eggs and Toast

II.  O Sole Meow

III. Where’s Your Mouse, McGee?

Cats in the Kitchen was commissioned for oboist Michele Fiala and flutist Heidi Pintner by Western Kentucky University, through its Provost’s Initiatives for Excellence Fund and the Potter College of Arts and Letters. Their recording was released on Michele Fiala’s MSR Classics CD as MS1217 – “The Light Wraps You: New Music for Oboe.” It has also been recorded on tuba and euphonium by SymbiosisDuo and released on GAR Music as GAR001.

The exciting kitty-populated premiere performance of the 2nd movement, “O Sole Meow,” by the Salt Lake Symphony oboists, Charlotte Bell and Hilary Coon, colorfully created in the very kitchen where the sounds were gathered. Directed and edited by noted music documentary filmmaker, Chris Simon.