out of nothing (2016) for piano trio is based on the following inscription that accompanies Frederick Hart’s sculpture Ex Nihilo, Fragment No. 8 found in the courtyard of the Lightner Museum in St. Augustine, Florida at the time of composition:

“Ex Nihilo (Out of Nothing) stands as an eloquent metaphor for humankind always ‘becoming’ – ever in a state of rebirth and reaffirmation of all the possibilities in being human, of the process of evolving into one’s own future.”

-Frederick Hart (1943-1999)