The Path (2025)
for Piano, Tres Cubano, Violin, Cello and hand percussion

total duration: ~60 minutes

In nine movements:

I The Forest
II - The Path
III - Illumination
IV - EDA
V - Perplexity
VI - Caravan
VII - Abyss
VIII - Kaleidoscope
IX- Shifting Memories

Premiere by Richard Carrick Piano, Bengisu Gokce Violin, Jeremy Harman Cello, Rafael Heredia Horimoto Drums/Percussion and Mario Salvador Tres Cubano on March 5, 2025 at Berklee in Boston, MA.

UPCOMING: NY Premiere by Richard Carrick Piano, Jennifer Choi Violin, Jeremy Harman Cello, Justin Jay Hines Drums/Percussion and Mario Salvador Tres Cubano on May 14, 2026 at mis-en_Place in Harlem, New York City.

The Path was written in December 2024 and January 2025 in Boston and Holland, MA.

If you are interested in how Richard is making these sounds in the piano, please check out Richard’s Extended Piano Techniques (2023) on YouTube

Program notes
The Path is a multi-movement, concert length work for piano, tres cubano, violin, cello and drums/percussion.

The Path is a reference to the opening line of Dante’s Inferno. He introduces the protagonist who states “I lost the path that does not stray.” The metaphors abound. Can it be a melody whose accompaniment strays wildly, or shifts the underlying groove unexpectedly? A polyrhythmic groove that straddles between two different pulses? Or is it my personal musical journey, which in this work leans more heavily on the music I listened to in my teen years. This might also be my first “Berklee” piece. I attended the Berklee summer program when I was 15, but took a different path in different musical genres and circled around the world before returning 30 years later.

Originally conceived as a set of lead sheets for violin and piano, the instrumentation evolved to a quintet which encouraged writing out arranged and structured compositions for the longer movements, thereby positioning this piece between the different worlds of lead sheet and notated composition.

There are many paths one can take, even if the path does not stray. The quintet sets out on a journey with the audience, between large structured compositions and solo/duo improvised threads that weave them together.

The Path (2025) is the final trilogy of concert length quintets based on music of Maghreb, including The Atlas for piano and string quartet (2023), and L’Algérie for piano, oud, violin, cello and percussion (2024).