Advanced Composition Search: 1983

Composer's note:  Killapata/Chaskapata was written in 1983 for the High School Flute Choir of the National Flute Association (NFA) and Judith Bentley, its director at that time. It received its premiere at the NFA’s convention in Philadelphia in August of that year, with the composer as soloist. Sollberger explains the origin of the piece: “Killapata and Chaskapata are recently-discovered Inca ritual sites located on the approaches to Machu Pichu, their Andean ritual center. Literally translated, the words mean, respectively, ‘above the moon’ and ‘above the stars.’ These words, coupled with images of imperial splendor now decayed and eroded amidst the seemingly eternal high wind and snow-swept peaks of the Andes, were catalysts in the work’s generation.”