“Mockingbird Hopscotch” was written for Christopher Adler for performance at the LA Bird Day concert organized and conceived by Synchromy group of composers.
This piece is my second experience writing for khaen and for Christopher Adler as a performer on this unique instrument.
I was presented with an option to write about any bird as a part of LA Bird Day celebration event for which several Californian composers were asked to write pieces about local birds. I have chosen Northern Mockingbird because it has a unique ability to mimic any bird call. Funny fact: Northern mockingbird repeats each mimicked call between 2-6 times and moves in different directions. The switches between different types of calls and repetitions made me thing of hopscotch game as kids were playing it right under my window.
When I was writing this piece, I listened to the recording of Northern mockingbird singing and was literally mimicking the mimicker – writing a dictation of its song. I also incorporated in performance of this piece typical for the bird repetitions and movement patterns to recreate the mockingbird’s stellar performance fully.

“Mockingbird Hopscotch” was written for Christopher Adler for performance at the LA Bird Day concert organized and conceived by Synchromy group of composers.
This piece is my second experience