Butterfly Hunt (2024) – for Soprano & Sinfonietta [With Score]

"Butterfly Hunt" composed by Kacper Madejek (2024).

Chamber concerto music written for solo soprano and sinfonietta (chamber orchestra, large chamber ensemble). Premiere performance at 'New Music New Haven' by ‪@ElizavetaKozlova‬ and members of the Yale Philharmonia under the baton of Stefano Boccacci on Nov 7th, 2024. Video montage and edits by Kacper Madejek.

2nd Prize at Euregio Klassika International Composition Competition 2024.
Finalist of ASCAP Morton Gould Composer Award 2025.

::: TEXT :::

last words in a mist of sighs,
time’s forgotten we were born,
I prayed the rainbow sheen of skies
would set us free, so we may fly
above the burning stakes and thorns.

on the trampled grass we bid farewell,
their empty nets flung in defeat alike deathly rings,
as borne aloft these hunting grounds we dwell
and flutter towards the blossom, waiting for the spell
that dying flowers cast on our pair of wings.

like the fleeting butterflies,
we’ll soon bring the lingering morn
and the sparkling dew’d bear witness to our yester cries,
spurring gardens into bloom, from the chrysaline disguise
we’ll emerge again, transformed.

lyrics by Kacper Madejek (2024)

::: ABOUT THE WORK :::

This plaintive chamber concerto for soprano serves as a vector of my feelings about the violations of belonging and self-expression. Upon reading Walter Benjamin’s eponymous essay, I was taken aback by the striking resemblance between his reckless butterfly hunt and violent human persecution. Such unprovoked cruelty continues to claim lives of people stigmatized simply for daring to be themselves, like innocuous butterflies fluttering in the garden before being captured. Set to my introspective poem in three stanzas, my music symbolically demarginalizes the individual voice by making it a catalyst for the ensemble, and reflects on its 'audacious' strife.

::: SOCIALS :::

Kacper Madejek, composer and lyricist
  / kacpermadejek  
https://kacpermadejek.com

Elizaveta Kozlova, soprano
  / elizavetasoprano  
https://elizavetakozlova.com

Stefano Boccacci, conductor
  / stefanoboccacci  
https://stefanoboccacci.com

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