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Avec la Gomme

for mixed sextet. Premiered by International Contemporary Ensemble on September 25th, 2024 as part of Polyaspora Festival: "The Future is Now Part 2”

The title is taken from the original French-language version of this quote often attributed to Igor Stravinsky: "Le compositeur travaille avec la gomme." [The composer works with the eraser.] In understanding I wanted to write very fast music for this, I realized generative processes like isorhythm and pitch-serialization, used in tandem, would be the ideal method. Thus, I began the piece by writing out all the expressions of the isorhythmic-row I wanted to use in order in every instrument and then erased and shaped from there.

Grand Guignol

for String Quartet. This piece operates in extremities. As such, it was named for the historic Parisian theater, Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol (The Theater of the Great Puppet) - known more commonly as Grand Guignol - previously located in the Pigalle district from 1897 until its closing in 1962. The theater specialized in naturalistic horror shows, and today the term is used to describe graphic, amoral horror entertainment. The piece is a love letter to several works that fall under the umbrella term. Written for and premiered by the illustrious JACK Quartet on February 8th, 2024 at Griswold Hall, Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.

blood…all over my hands

for Pierrot ensemble with voice and percussion. A collage of expressions of madness throughout poetry, music, literature, and theater, presented as a path with dangerous curves. This piece was written during the first half of 2023, in which over 540 anti-Queer bills were introduced in state legislatures across the US, and, as such, is an expression of personal as well as political rage. Performed by Der Gestanke.

reaching towards, reaching from

for Pierrot Ensemble

The general progression of the piece is betrayed by its title in that the music is constantly reaching both towards and from A4, eventually becoming totally consumed by it. The form consists of the strophe, which is expository; the antistrophe, which is reactionary; and the epode, which acts to summarize and juxtapose the two. Each are imbued with non-linear presentations of the particular materials. Performed by Der Gestanke.

A Reading from the Gospel of Thomas

for two sopranos, violin, cello, & piano (2022)

Text excerpted from Gnostic Gospels. This piece documents the composer's personal re-evaluation of Christian mysticism - from viewing all Christianity as an ideology inextricably linked with American Fascism to seeing the varied strata and even finding the foundations of Universalist Liberation Theology. Performed by Avery Richards, Chloe Gardner, Brian Stuligross, Claire Bostick, & Daniel Nerger.

things being as they are

for guitar and electronics (2022)

It is too soon to know

for guitar and electronics (2022)

S O U S E

“S O U S E” for solo cello was written for and premiered by Felix Fan of the FLUX Quartet at the 2021 Virtual soundSCAPE Festival on July 19th.