Commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, world premiere by ROCO.

Through Neither Man Nor Money Validate My Worth, I musically explore the life of a child victim of human trafficking. It is intended to be a musical commentary based on Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition programmed concurrently. The motivic material of the work is based on the harmonic and motivic elements from the Mussorgsky original. The imagery inspiration for the work is taken from the portraiture of The New Abolitionists– people who are working to end modern slavery and human trafficking.

I first heard the term ‘human trafficking’ when working for the United Nations on their 50 for Freedom campaign, and later when working with the Los Angeles-based charity Everychild. I was shocked to discover just how prevalent and close to home this issue is in our current society. According to UNICEF, in 2021 over 160 million children around the world are in some kind of forced labor, up from 40 million in 2017. Children between the ages of five to 11 now account for just over half of the total global figure. This means 1 in 10 children worldwide are trafficked.

The United States is not immune from this tragedy. In Texas, for example, there were over 300,000 human trafficking cases in 2016, with 80,000 of those being minors. When taken into account with the numbers from UNICEF, it is difficult to fathom how trafficking has increased. I’m glad Texas had the courage to publish these statistics. My home state of California does not make its numbers public.

My background as a conductor informs my creative process, which is centered around the perception of how time unfolds. I'm particularly drawn to the concept of the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Ratio - building the overarching musical structure on the scaffold of time rather than on the number of notes or measures, which parallels to our heroine's experience, measuring her existence in weeks and years.

The music in the first part of the piece is low and foreboding, shadowing the desperation of our heroine's journey. As the music inches toward the climactic point at the Golden Ratio, a ray of hope bursts through and propels us towards a brilliant conclusion when our heroine breaks free from the chains that have been constricting her since childhood.

In many ways, humans have an intense vulnerability, and that vulnerability is available for exploitation, especially in the young. When we think of ourselves as Americans, living in an informed, advanced, culturally enlightened society where there is hope for equality, to know that this type of unspeakable cruelty can persist is mind-boggling. The idea that people can partake, and be subjected to, practices of slavery can only be described as barbaric. It is my most sincere hope, and the hope of ROCO, that Man Nor Money will shed the tiniest bit of light on the hidden epidemic of human trafficking in the US. It is the ultimate injustice.

Composed, orchestrated, and bespoke electronics by Leanna Primiani. Performance by the Seattle Collaborative Orchestra, Anna Edwards, cond.
We are all familiar with the story of 1,001 Nights: A Sultan discovers his wife was unfaithful to him. After he kills her, he decides to marry a new virgin each day, as well as behead the previous day’s wife, so that they would have no chance of being unfaithful. On the night of his marriage to Scheherazade, she begins to tell the Sultan a tale, but does not end it. The Sultan, curious to know the ending, spares her life in order to hear the end of the tale. After she finishes one tale, she beings another that, in turn, postpones her execution. This continues for 1,001 nights until he decides to spare her life and make her his Queen.
I have always been fascinated with this story. I often wondered what would it have been like to be Scheherazade? Finishing one story and making up another for years? Living in fear of a man you live with? Living in fear for your life? Difficult to imagine, yes, but many women live in fear of their spouse every day, and many fearing for their lives.
Through 1001, I musically explore the psyche of a woman living in fear. Using musical elements from the Rimsky Korsakov original, I tell the story but from Scheherazade’s point of view. While her underlying reality may be based in fear, there must have been a myriad of emotions she experienced: fear, anger, hope, anxiety, and finally ‘peace’ when the Sultan decides to spare her life. Peace? Really? Does the anxiety ever go away? Do women who live in fear ever feel safe? It is up for you, the listener, to decide.
I was also fascinated with the idea that the number 1001 is a palindrome. The work itself is a palindrome, but not in the strictest sense, as I based the musical structure of 1001 on the Golden Ratio (φ). While this technique has been used by many composers in the 20th century, I base my calculations on time rather the number of notes or measures. Since the Golden Ratio is not exactly even, I used a little python program to mathematically condense the music of the first half to fit in the space of the second half and then recomposed the first half musical material in retrograde to complete the palindrome. In addition, I used the Golden Mean to divide the sections of the piece, entrances of motivic material, and even the metronome markings, which get faster and slower incrementally using the Fibonacci sequence.

A great concert opener for education, pops, and patriotic concerts.

Loss for Solo Piano was written as an homage to my mother who died of pancreatic cancer. This piece musically contends with loss and the memory that inevitably accompanies it, in a variety of ways. First, the constant eighth note figure in the left hand is prevalent throughout the piece suggest the inevitable fate of my mother’s disease; meanwhile, the right hand plays the poignant melody that represents the beauty of my mother’s essence.


The addition, the scalar flourishes that fit in between the statements of the melody suggest flashes of memories that can overwhelm then vanish as quickly as they came. Time weighs heavily in Loss–– while the score is marked in common time, the music itself is written to suggest timelessness, with the syzygy between the two worlds, reality and memory, coming in and out of focus.
During her illness, I experienced flashes of memories, both wonderful and painful, that came to me during her struggle with the disease: memories of love, joy, regret, resentment, fear, hope. While my memories of her are precious they are always bittersweet.

Nick Photinos, cello. Bespoke electronics by Leanna Primiani

Performed by York Lu at the Taiwan International flute Festival.

Performed Live in NYC by 212 Reed Trio. Performance sponsored by The Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra, NYC

Composed, orchestrated, and bespoke electronics by Leanna Primiani. Performed by the Lyris Quartet on the Newman Scoring Stage on the Fox lot, Los Angeles.

(Grade 6)- St. Olaf Band, Tim Mahr, cond.