From time to time, the New Juilliard Ensemble extends its activities beyond Juilliard. An opportunity unexpectedly arose in mid-September with a call from the Silk Road Project, Yo-Yo Ma's enterprise that provides opportunities for composers from China to West Asia. One of the project's principal sponsors, the German manufacturer Siemens, had created an artist-in-residence program to bring Silk Road composers to the United States. Each is given a studio in a Siemens factory with computer, piano, etc., as well as accommodations and a stipend. In exchange, they write pieces reflecting some aspect of their experience. The first recipient was Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky, a young, extraordinarily talented composer from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Siemens wanted to premiere his composition before his departure. The strange thing was the location of Dmitri's residency—a hearing-aid factory in Piscataway, N.J.! Knowing Dmitri's music, I was eager to participate even before seeing the piece, and agreed to the engagement (which Siemens' generosity made possible on a proper professional basis). But everything needed to be arranged immediately: I was leaving for concerts in Germany and Ukraine, and rehearsals would begin the morning after my return.

Joel Sachs (left) and Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky rehearse Hearing Solution with the N.J.E. at the Siemens factory in New Jersey. (Photo by Jill Becker)

Like many Silk Road Project works, the piece featured cello. I offered the solo role to Clarice Jensen, one of N.J.E.'s ranking cellists, and set about assembling the ensemble of harp, piano, two percussionists, and string quintet. Dmitri, a master at the computer, promptly sent clean, error-free materials. The name of the piece? Hearing Solution.

There would be two performances, the first at DeBaun Auditorium of the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., a beautiful, 500-seat space with excellent sound. This concert, on October 7, opened with two songs magnificently performed by the Ilyas Malaev Ensemble, a group originally from Bukhara, the ancient Tadzhik capital now in Uzbekistan. The ensemble, which now lives in Queens, consisted of a singer, and players of tar, a lute-like instrument, and doyra, a frame drum. Next, the New Juilliard Ensemble played Hearing Solution. After a panel discussion with Ted Levin (a Dartmouth specialist in Central Asian music), the composer, and me, we played the piece a second time. A superbly lyric work, it was enthusiastically received by the audience, many of them business people who said they were unexposed to new concert music, and who were amazed by the level of the Juilliard performers.

The next day, we repeated Hearing Solution at the factory. One imagines factories as places displaying noise, grime, grease, and many other unpleasantnesses of life. But this one is quite the opposite: looking more like a lab than a factory, it must be kept utterly clean. Smoking is prohibited, not only indoors but even near the building. Smokers go to a nearby woods to light up!

Read an interview with Joel Sachs.

The factory performance was unforgettable. The audience of about 200 workers and management also had little background in new "classical" music, but listened with great concentration. (One worker, who emigrated from Ukraine 25 years ago, had hoped to attend Juilliard, but was so poor that she abandoned thoughts of a career in music.) Amazed by what their friend Dmitri had conceived, they posed questions to him that seemed unusually interesting. Their warm feelings must have touched him deeply. (The chain-smoking Dmitri made many friends at the forest puffing retreat.)

How could such a work reflect a hearing-aid factory? Dmitri's answer: as a metaphor for the loss and subsequent regain of hearing. The drama of the piece concerns the initial obscuring of the cello's voice, followed by its gradual emergence. An obvious example is the instruction at several points early on that the cellist play without touching the string, so the music can only be imagined. The drama resides on a deeper level, as the ideas of composition emerge gradually from obscurity to clarity.

Whether or not Hearing Solution turns out to be a masterpiece will be for time to judge. Whatever time says, for the performers, organizers, and audience, Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky had provided those moments that make performing worthwhile.