i’m sorry, not sorry (2016)

for vocalizing flute and vocalizing violin (duration = c. 4:30)

also arranged for vocalizing trumpet and vocalizing viola

Listen to the Witches (Louna Dekker-Vargas and Ledah Finck) 2017 studio recording of “i’m sorry, not sorry”

Program Notes

I got the idea for i’m sorry, not sorry when I read that Hillary Clinton was the first presidential candidate in US history to say the words “I’m sorry” to her supporters during her concession speech after losing the 2016 election to Donald Trump. I found that shocking and it made me think about how strange it is that women feel the need to apologize so much more than men. Beyoncé has an awesome and powerful song called “Sorry” that features the lyrics “Sorry, I ain’t sorry,” which gave me the idea for the words and the concept of the piece. And I stole the harmonies from a passage in Beethoven’s Piano Sonata, Op. 110.

i’m sorry, not sorry was written for The Witches - Louna Dekker-Vargas, flute and vocals; and Ledah Finck, violin and vocals - for their 2016 “Behind the Curtain” project, a set of commissions that delve musically into the multifaceted possibilities of what it means to be a female human interacting with her world.

“Behind the Curtain” was funded by a 2016 Johns Hopkins University Provost’s Research Award.

Performance history

First performance:

The Witches at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, January, 2017

Additional performances:

The Witches at the Red Room in Baltimore, January 28, 2017

The Witches at Windup Space in Baltimore, February 27, 2017

Kate Amrine Record Release in Brooklyn, July 27, 2019 plus more shows on tour!

5th Wave Ensemble in Chicago, Carmen Abelson and Anatolia Evarkiou-Kaku, January 18, 2020

More information

“does an excellent job of communicating a wealth of emotional nuance with a simple yet effective text” from Review of Kate Amrine’s album “This is My Letter to the World” by Tristan McKay on I Care if You Listen

For more information about this piece, including performance inquiries and other possible instrumentations, send me an email to fultonruby@gmail.com

Kate Amrine and Katya Barmotina collaborated with by Mischa Ipp on this video of “i’m sorry, not sorry”