In 2005, as I was completing my PhD in Music Theory and Composition, I attended a workshop about the clarinet. The workshop leader was Peter Josheff, a San Fransico Bay Area musician who had already performed a number of my works. Inspired by the workshop, I wrote a piece titled Tecla for the Empyrean Ensemble, of which Jesheff is a member, which incorporated some of what I learned during the workshop. I was happy with Tecla (for Violin, Clarient/Bass Clarinet, Percussion and Piano) especially a bass clarinet cadenza that highlights the large expressive intervals that can be produced on the instrument. When Kathryn invited me to compose a piece for solo bass clarinet, I thought of this cadenza in Tecla. After listening to it, I was inspired all over again, and so I took a few passages I liked from the Tecla cadenza and used this as the core of this 4 minute piece. I also love how the bass clarinet has such a large dynamic range, and so I also incorporated long notes with crescendos and decrescendos that can begin and end very softly. Those are the two basic themes of Wandering – large leaps and long notes that crescendo and decrescendo.