In February 2008 Jürg Schubiger sent me a group of texts for children. I selected 14 of them and set to work straight away. I also contacted the string orchestra, Collegium Musicum, Schaffhausen (I had worked with this group earlier under conductor, Andreas Schmid earlier—see Boundaries, and was now put in contact with the new conductor, Annedore Neufeld. She was happy to include it in a children’s program with Fiona as soloist. I was very impressed with how she worked with the orchestra (mostly amateurs with just professionals in the leading positions).
There were two concerts: at the ref. church in Thayngen (SH) 13.03.2009 and in the Rathauslaube Schaffhausen 22.03.2009, a beautiful old wood-lined building. Fiona was superb, the orchestra less so—although I had tried to tailor the work to their ability, especially the faster sections were sometimes beyond them.
The version for piano and soprano was written in 2012 after an invitation from Monika Lichtensteiger for Fiona and Dominik Blum to perform a Schubiger / Powell program. This took place on 6. May (Brigitte’s birthday—Dominik played Happy Birthday!) and since it was such a success, again on 16.09.2012, both times in the Hottinger Saal in Kreis 7 of Zürich.