• INSTRUMENTAL CHAMBER •
VOX - 45’
Vln. + Pno. (2024, 2021)
Commissioned/premiered by New Chamber Ballet with choreography by Miro Magloire. Performers: Doori Na, violin, Melody Fader, piano
VOX is a multi-movement ballet that stemmed from an initial partnership between Manhattan School of Music and the company composed by Elizabeth entitled Deep Breath. Over time, the work was expanded to incorporate music modeled on interviews with each dancer on their unique relationship to their voice. Described as “bracing, daring, and calmly radical” by critic Leigh Witchel, VOX translates vocalism for violin, piano, and dancing bodies.
Photography by Steven Pisano
Not Yours, but Ours - 5’
Perc. Duo + Student Perc. Ensemble (5 parts) (2023)
Commissioned/premiered by Pax Duo and Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra
Stoma Haema - 14’
Chamber Orchestra (Fl., B. Cl., Bsn., Hn., Tpt., B. Tbn., 3 Perc., Hp., Pno., 4 Vln., 2 Vla., 2 Vc., Db. - may be modified at discretion of composer) (2021)
The cover image, painted by my father, features the landscape of Peninsula State Park in Door County, Wisconsin. I’ve come to find that, within my own, short lifetime, the makeup of this Northern Mesic forest has actually changed. Heavier and less predictable rain showers have increased erosion. Invasive insects and disease survive through milder winters, attacking plant victims of drought. Hotter temperatures in summer months call on small, unprotected plants to activate their stomata and force water to their outer leaves faster. This rapid process means these plants are more susceptible to fatal frost damage in winters when the seedlings can no longer rely on protection from snowpack. Meanwhile, species like the towering Sugar Maple will adapt and thrive to the shifts in climate and will likely take over these Wisconsin woods in the years to come. Less equipped species will die out, and the Sugar Maple will perhaps outlive even the human species responsible for the infringement upon its land; especially if current trends continue.
Stoma Haema for chamber orchestra is intended for either virtual or live performance. The piece is comprised of a Prime Quintet and an External Orchestra, consisting of three ensembles. In both live and pre-recorded settings, the outcome of the Prime Quintet is concrete and irreversible. It is the role of the External Orchestra to employ active listening and complete their parts primarily using sonic cues only. These players will first inevitably invade the music of the Prime Quintet, then reconstruct it in a way which is reminiscent of the original, but never precisely what had existed before.
Cover art by Gary L. Gartman
Photo by John Spoerl
See-Through - 7’
Chamber Orchestra (Fl., Ob., Cl., Bsn., Hn., Tpt., 2 Perc., Pno., 2 Vln., Vla., Vc., Db.) (2018)
Premiered by Illinois Modern Ensemble
See-through, for chamber orchestra, was composed throughout 2018; a year of 308 mass shootings and counting in the United States. It seems as soon as one incident takes place, another is close to follow. As guns and violence have become omnipresent in our culture, select schools have begun to implement see-through backpacks as one form of a safety for their students. However, this has nonetheless proven ineffective, since a clear view of a child’s possessions does not penetrate the opacity of their minds, or of their suffering, or, of their potential violence. The looming anxiety created by this disparity is emulated in this piece by a repetitive eighth-note motive played by vibraphone accented by tutti orchestra. This line continues steadily throughout a majority of the work, later augmenting, returning in vibraphone, and emerging in drum set out of a chaotic sound mass structure. The orchestra then slows to a near halt before approaching its climax - a musical representation of the nation’s violent nature projecting onto shooters and taking lives over, and over, and over. This penetrating repetition reminds us that each victim is unique: special to someone, inherently valuable, and yet, to the greater society, another name in an ever-lengthening list.