If I Am From Somewhere I Am From There

Let me introduce you to Aaron Holloway-Nahum’s extraordinary new work, If I Am From Somewhere I Am From There, for violin and electronics with optional video.

At Splendor, Amsterdam (July '25)

This piece is unlike anything I have ever played: deeply personal, technically daring, and profoundly collaborative. From the very beginning, Aaron approached this work as an exploration of identity and memory through dialogue. He interviewed me, asked my family to share early recollections of my relationship with music, and folded these fragments—sometimes words, sometimes pitches, sometimes gestures—into the DNA of the piece. What strikes me most is how he treated even the smallest details with care: the textures of childhood places, the rhythm of my brother's “Hallo Marie,” the sensations of playing itself.

The result is a twenty-minute journey through layered sonic and visual landscapes: microtonal tuning systems, improvisation, live electronics, video, and a final Passacaglia movement performed from memory. It stretches the limits of my instrument and myself, but it never feels like virtuosity for its own sake. Instead, every demand emerges from Aaron’s trust in my willingness to hold space for vulnerability, risk, experimentation, and transformation.

From the premiere at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge (April '25)

There are grand, dramatic gestures, but what lingers with me most are the quieter resonances: the sound of snow falling in the Black Forest, the delicacy of a pencil moving across paper, the patience for stillness. These moments create a landscape that is at once intimate yet expansive, specific yet universal—a reflection of belonging, movement, and the stories we carry.

If I Am From Somewhere I Am From There is part of Until Between, a project that weaves together new commissions from Aaron, Ashkan Behzadi and Taher Adel, alongside a new work of my own. These pieces form a conversation about home, identity, and language— recorded this spring in Cologne in co-production with Deutschlandfunk and set for release on Coviello Contemporary this autumn.

The piece was commissioned with generous support from PRS Foundation's The Open Fund for Music Creators, the Vaughan Williams Foundation and Francis Routh Trust. The premiere took place on 10th April 2025 at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge with subsequent performances in Spain and Netherlands, and more to come - keep in touch here or via Instagram for further announcements.

Read about Aaron’s creative process in this behind-the-scenes article, or explore the score itself at Composers Edition.