Includes Score and Parts. Advanced level performance.

Piece for Liz is written for my friend Elizabeth Aleman, a part-time bus driver. It depicts a narrative of a passenger's experience of riding the bus home. This piece is intended to be performed in a venue that has a substantial amount of ambient noise, preferably noise from passing automobiles. If the venue is a concert hall, then a ten minute recording of ambient traffic noise from a local road should be played over the concert hall's stereo system before and during the performance of the piece. The ambient noise is highlighted by the soft dynamics of clarinet's first motive which represents the bus driver's last call for passengers to board. The second section is a long cadenza-like cello solo that depicts the thoughts of a passenger staring out the window. The third section uses an additive process to depict when the bus gets crowded during peak hours. The crowd disperses at the next stop which is indicated by the open strings and descending lines. The final section returns to the opening pitch material, representing the bus returning from its route. In the final gesture, all the instruments play a single line together, breaking a rule that has defined the rest of the piece. Thus they get "fired" from bus driving and the piece ends, but not before the piano quietly poses a question, calling attention back to the ambient sounds that have permeated the entire piece.