What I Didn't Know Before

Program Notes

What I Didn’t Know Before, a setting of a really gorgeous poem of the same name by Ada Limón, was commissioned by NYC’s Mirror Visions Ensemble as part of their Young Composers Competition in 2021. I had been a tremendous fan of Limón’s poetry for years before that, so as we lobbed poetry back and forth, I included a handful of her poems—and this one stuck with all of us the most. The poem relies on a simple, heartfelt image: the poet describing how love came to them suddenly, like a newborn horse that, shortly after its arrival, is already up and moving full speed, “a four-legged beast hellbent on walking.” “What was between us wasn’t a fragile thing to be coddled, cooed over,” writes Limón. “It came out fully formed, ready to run.”