Violinist Kate Stenberg and pianist Sarah Cahill will commission Pamela Z to compose Presence, a 20-minute trio work with interactive electronic media. The work will explore presence (and absence) in its many senses – physical, incorporeal, demeanor, carriage, presence of mind. Working with the three women’s physical forms, focus and stage presence, Z will incorporate gesture, facial expression, and physical attitude into the score – making use of silence, slow deliberate actions, imitation, and unisons to fill the space with the ever-changing intensity of imposing, dignified, fleeting, insistent, and comforting presence. The work will incorporate one of Z’s innovative artistic signatures: gesture–controlled MIDI instruments for all three performers. Their movements will manipulate interjections of sampled audio and video projected on tall, human scale surfaces. The acoustic sound of all three performers will also be processed in real time to create densely layered, contrapuntal, timbrally complex music.