Jonathan Graybill garners his influences from nature, field recordings, history, and the legends and stories of the indigenous people of North America in his music. Currently, Graybill is invested in an ongoing project, the Ancient Lan-guage of Birds, which consists of a series of works that pair a solo instrument with field recordings of the songs and calls of single avian species from North America – the pieces explore the hidden languages buried deep within these songs. The birds are connected with stories of Native Americans origin, ex-ploring the cultural meanings and early names of these birds.

Fantasy on a Theme of Charlie Chaplin is based on a theme from Chaplin’s film, Limelight (1952). The theme is often referred to as Terry’s theme after a character in the film. This same theme became the melody for the widely popular song Eternally from the following year sung by Jimmy Young. I began the piece in 2014, as a tribute to Chaplin for the 100th anni-versary of the debut of his tramp character, which first appeared in Kid Auto Racing at Venice, CA in 1914. Limelight is a biographical film set in 1914 Lon-don, Chaplin’s birth town. The film explores themes of an aging artist who is struggling with the changing times, feeling relevant, and the eventual passing of the torch to the next generation of artists.