Flames was written as part of the show Elemental and premiered on April 22, 2018 with Contralto Rachelle Moss and pianist/composer Steven Luksan (on piano instead of flute) during a performance by Seattle Art Song Society.

The text is by TOGE Sankichi, a Japanese poet, activist, and survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. A huge thanks to Professor Karen Thornber and to The University of Chicago Center for East Asian Studies (CEAS) for allowing me to use the English translation of this important work.

The full translation of TŌGE Sankichi's work Poems of the Atomic Bomb (Genbaku Shishu) by Karen Thornber (Harvard University) was a winner of the 2011-2012 William F. Sibley Memorial Translation Prize, and is available on the CEAS website.

To listen to a sample of a studio recording of this song from the album Inaugural produced by Seattle Art Song Society, click here. This recording is from the studio recording and features Rachelle with flutist Heather Bede.

If you are interested in performing this piece, or to learn more, please contact Brian at info@brianarmbrust.com.