Jana Kmiťová: Searching (You)

Jana Kmiťová (b. 1976) studied piano and composition at the Conservatory in Košice and then graduated in composition from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. She attended composition courses in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Austria, Canada, and Switzerland. She has studied also in Vienna and received the scholarship of Japan foundation NipponWien and has twice received state scholarships for composition from the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture. Her compositions include works for chamber ensembles and orchestra as well as vocal music.

Searching (You), scored for a nonet of flute, clarinet (doubling bass clarinet), trombone, violin, viola, cello, doublebass, piano, and percussion, was composed for the Slovak Festival Asynchrony in 2018. There are fast passages which transform repeated tones into intervalic jumps. For Searching (You), Kmiťová also wrote a text which is not a component of the composition: “I’m running after you and it’s running like the dream: light and fast as the wind, feverish, searching, weightless, every second almost at the finish, and at the same time meaningless and without any hope of finding.”