Peace for Voice and Electronics is a work based on a poem by Rupert Burke.
Premiere:
May 22, 2021 – UW-Whitewater New Media Ensemble Concert, Whitewater, Wisconsin
This work uses the text from Rupert Burke and his sentiment on war and allows performers to reinterpret the text through sampling, granulation, and commentary. Performers prepare ten recordings of the text. In performance, live readings are combined with live effects and replay of samples.
Sunset for Flute, Clarinet, and Piano
Premiere:
December 4, 2014 – Versipel New Music concert series, New Orleans, Louisiana
Program Notes:
Sunset is a collection of miniatures depicting the changing color, shadows, and light that come through in my house in Baton Rouge’s Garden District. The set depicts the often kaleidoscopic visage of a southern Louisiana sunset from within my historic hardwood home in Baton Rouge Garden District. As colored light peaks through large windows and travels across the ceilings and floors, the melodies of the Flute, Clarinet, and Piano trade off and interweave.
Dracones Nursery for Alto Saxophone and Live ElectroAcoustics
Program Notes:
Dracones, the race of giant, toothed serpentine monsters from Greek mythology (for example the Hydra and Hesperian Dragon, the hundred headed dragon which guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides included in Hercules lore,) have a reputation, as adults, of being large and ferocious. This interactive work explores a mind thought of the existence of these monsters as babies and a place to take care of them.
This piece requires MaxMSP, a saxophone microphone. Optional AirPlay foot pedal can be used to advance through interactive electroacoustic sections.
Nocturne for String Orchestra is an arrange from my original String Quartet. The addition of string bass adds a sense of fullness.
Program Notes:
Nocturne for String Orchestra is based off an Asian story about a hero who suffers a mortal wound while fighting abroad. As he lies dying, he asks the Moon to send his good-byes to his loved ones: his wife and 4 children. But it’s a cloudy evening, and the Moon only shows itself in brief moments. The piece follows the hero’s thoughts for each loved one, portrayed through the string instruments. The instruments interweave and culminate at points when the Moon finally reveals itself to the Hero, allowing him to finally send his last thoughts.
Recording – 2011 – Louisiana Sinfonietta
String Quartet (2008). Premiered at Louisiana State University by Raul Gomez, Delyana Lazarova, Delcho Tenev, and Elizabeth Mezaros.
1. Proem
2. Nocturne
3. Fantasy
Length: ~ 20 minutes
The Dark for Voice and Piano/Harpischord was written in 2006.
Monica Filgo contributed the text from which the lyrics were based and is based on her experience being mugged.
In the original text and adaptation, the author alternates between violent reality and numbing imagination. I felt the turning point in the text is when the unavoidable reality overcomes any escapist fantasy, and the two states of mind combine. This piece was an attempt make an adequately emotional setting to an experience of a personal friend.
A late drive and the Dark is so thick.
I twist my hair and imagine-
The scent of water on my head,
Rain sound of water over me.
I imagine sleep as I drive.
Ready with my keys, the shadows all around hide Him.
I feel my lungs explode, screaming.
I tremble. I am frozen stone.
Young, with this gun, he blends into the night.
He’s reaching towards me.
I step away, and imagine-
My hair in his fist, my teeth along the ground, my blood. I try to scream again, but he stops me.
I try to stand, to bite, to kick but he stops me.
I imagine dying.
I imagine living at this in between place with a gun to my
neck!
I feel the ground then nothing.
I would run for forever, if ever if I could stand. A future now that’s unreal!
He whispers, ‘Quiet calm down.’
I close my eyes, and enter the Dark.
Recording – 2008 – Allison Usher (Schnake) and Alejandro Aguello
Moment for solo cello was originally composed in 2010 for LSU Theatre’s An Evening of Anton Chekhov and performed by Susannah Montandon.
~6 minutes.
Adjacency for solo flute was composed in 2008. Adjacency for Flute alone is a piece takes the neighbor tone and spins that into melodic song.
Recording – Brittany Foster – Louisiana State University
Clarify for solo violin was written in 2007 and premiered by Raul Gomez at Louisiana State University.
Commotion is an acoustmatic 2-channel piece that uses sound sources that involve motion (cars, planes, trains, airports).
Night for Full Orchestra was completed in 2008 and my master’s thesis.
[Score available on request]
Wait (2011) for 4-channel diffusion.
Program Notes
This work explores the confluence of two disparate sounds cast in a field of space and dynamics. The form of Wait is 4 repetitions of a single thought. Each repetition is a slight expansion and elaboration of the previous.
Wait – Stereo Mix
Wait – Left Channel
Wait – Left Surround Channel
Wait – Right Channel
Wait – Right Surround Channel
Duo for Flute and Trumpet was composed in 2006 and premiered by John Paul Reed and Whitney York.
love itself shall slumber on for Soprano, Marimba, and Cello is based on a selection of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley:
1. Love’s Philosphy
2. Mutability
3. Song of Persepine.
Pins and Needles Bend and Break for Solo Saxophone is written 2010 and premiered by Lindsey Jacob at Louisiana State University.
This piece is part of a greater collection of deconstructed children’s tunes.
Sonata for Oboe and Piano was composed in 2003. One of my first compositions, the work has three very different moods. I labeled the first movement Menacing, but the notes end there. The second movement is very slow and tranquil. The third movement is an ‘long-legged’ dance. There a (pivoting minor sixth) motive that exists in all three movements.
Recording – Diana Tsai – University of Florida