Melia Watras, a foremost performing violist and professor of viola, has commissioned a good number of composers for new works for her instrument. In her commission of Ran, she requested that a starting point be an excerpt from any established work in the viola's repertoire of Ran's choosing. Ran immediately turned to the haunting viola solo passage from Luciano Berio's Black Is the Color (from Folksongs). While the Berio is infused throughout Ran's Perfect Storm, she has crafted a sonic landscape of varied mood, using an array of the violist's skills and techniques in an impressive concert work. See a video excerpt on YouTube from the world premiere, which includes a discussion of the work by Ran and Watras.

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Perfect Storm for solo Viola
PERFECT STORM is indeed a perfect storm for the viola literature. Violist Melia Watras’s commission proposal came with a guideline that Shulamit Ran draw inspiration from any staple of the viola repertoire. Ran found this in the prominent viola motif from Luciano Berio’s “Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair,” the opening setting of his Folk Songs – taking the chain of inspiration one level further. Ran’s resulting work is a perfect storm of beauty with drama, and of freshness with hints at familiarity.