On July 14, 2014, the Castleton Festival Orchestra conducted by Vlad Vizireanu gave the premiere performance of NATARAJA. The performance was reviewed by the Rappahannock News:
"An astonishing, climate-changing performance of “Nataraja,” a challenging piece conducted unflinchingly by Vlad Vizireanu, one of the dozens of promising young conductors hand-picked by [Lorin] Maazel to work and learn at Castleton over the years, from a similarly lionhearted and lovely score by Michael-Thomas Foumai — the winner of Maazel’s 2014 Young Composer’s Forum.
...His composition was inspired by the Hindu god Shiva, the cosmic dancer who must destroy a weary universe in preparation for the god Brahma to start a new creation. A tall order — and filled by the young composer with audacious sonic mood swings from violent, dark dissonance to achingly delicate, string- and bell-driven beauty... A tour of the hollows and heavens."
