Yusef Komunyakka, Librettis: I wanted to write a text that is lyrical and narrative, suggestive and straight-ahead, Asian and Western, a piece that challenges the viewer through poetic tension- celebration and confrontation.

It is important to me that the musc and poetry reflect one another… but also to contain contrasts and surprises for the audience that would help them understand the piece. I knew Susie's work and heard wonderful remarks about her skills as a musician and composer a couple years before we met in 1999 and I sensed that she was the ideal collaborator.

Susie's challenge has been to create music that complements my text. Early on, she sent me two recorded excerpts from Shangri-La, and I couldn't believe the compelling clarity and density of the music, how her special touch dramatizes and heightens the words to a level of art.

I wanted to emphasize the poetry of showing in this performance piece to make the images tell the story and to let the viewers and listeners become co-creators of meaning and I believe that Shangri-La indeed presents a variety of narratives within a controlled, lyrical paradigm.