Project: Composition of a commission from the Australian pianist Michael Fowler and the American percussionist Stuart Gerber (Ensemble Sirius). The commissioned work, entitled Magnificat for Piano and Percussion, is an instrumental reinterpretation of the canticle sung at the end of the liturgical office of Vespers in the Roman Catholic Church. Therefore, this work for an instrumental duo draws upon a purely vocal genre for its inspiration, material, and structure. In particular, the versical form of the Magnificat text, the tradition of responsorial performance of the Magnificat in the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods, and the canticle tone used in plainchant settings of the Magnificat are central ideas informing the Magnificat for Piano and Percussion. The work is scheduled to be premiered in the United States, Australia, and Mexico in the summer and fall of 2002.