About rushes

Rushes is a 55 minute tour-de-force that takes the listener on a meditative journey through rich, undulating harmonies captured by the velvety sound of seven bassoons. 

Gordon's intricate Rushes flows like a river with constantly varying ripples and waves, requiring great concentration over its hour-long unbroken span of sound.  The composer compares the score to "a very long weaving pattern for a loom," but it's also alive and breathing. . ."

—David Patrick Stearns, The Philadelphia Inquirer

The work was commissioned in 2011 by the New Music Bassoon Fund, and premiered in 2012 at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) in Troy, NY.