Tracing is commissioned by and written for Paul Gmeinder. Paul Gmeinder is an outstanding cellist who approaches new music like a cellist approaches the Brahms Sonata or the Dvorak Concerto: with incredible passion. I have performed with him a number of times in various works and was very much moved by his passion and love for the “making of music”. So when he commissioned me to write a piece for cello and piano I was really honored, excited and anxious to start writing. I knew what kind of cello sound I would get from him--and what kind of cello sound I must give him. After I started writing, the work was like a journey I never wanted to stop. I used to play cello as a boy, and it was almost like all these years I had taken a journey and was now returning to the love I had abandoned.
