Chamber Ensemble Compositions
Quartets
Five Scenes for String Quartet (2017)
Duration: 7 minutes
I composed a series of five short vignettes. Each vignette (or scene as I title them) evokes a particular mood and explores a different timbre. The first movement, Prelude, introduces nearly all the different timbres expanded upon throughout the entire work, and they are developed further in the successive scenes. Towards the middle of the prelude, a fast and rhythmic motive is introduced. This dance-like motive connects nearly every other scene, either through its harmonies, rhythm, or melody.
Performers: Spektral String Quartet
Sprint, Exhale, Volley for string quartet (2024)
Duration: 15 minutes
Sprint, Exhale, Volley was commissioned by the Lakes Area Music Festival for the Thalea String Quartet. The opening gesture from “Sprint,” the first movement, inspired the entire quartet. “Sprint” divides the quartet into two duos, violin 1 and viola as one duo, and violin 2 and cello in the second duo. Only late into the movement does the quartet finally unite and play all together. The quartet perform a frantic, fast paced dance-like melody celebrating the ensemble finally joining forces.
“Exhale,” the second movement, takes the first movement’s beginning melody and dramatically slows the tempo down. The combination of the slower tempo and frequent glissandi creates a hazy out of time feeling, as if someone were exhaling their breath after such a frantic sprint from the first movement.
The third movement, “Volley,” was originally part of the first movement. Initially, I envisioned “Volley” as a later climactic section in the opening movement. However, as I continued writing, the music for the climactic portion grew so large that it dwarfed the rest of the first movement, becoming its own entire movement. “Volley” reflects the previous movements, in particular the pizzicato doubling of arco sound prominently featured in the first movement and also a similarly harmonic language to the first movement. In “Volley,” the viola plays a prominent pizzicato doubling of the two violins. In addition, the second movement’s glissandi melody returns. The violins passing their opening melody back and forth reminded me of tennis players “volleying” the ball.
Performers: Thalea String Quartet
Bridges for flute, clarinet, violin, and cello (2020)
Duration: 10 minutes
Bridges was commissioned by Philip Bergman and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago for the 2020 Chicago Speaks, Chicago Listen event. Our society is more divided than ever before, and these divides are becoming more severe and controversial. While it’s easy to focus on our differences, instead, I wish we could focus on our similarities. This desire took a musical form when composing Bridges. Here, I faced the difficulty of bringing together four very separate instruments, in terms of their timbres and ranges. I often attempt to bring these four instruments together into one united and harmonized voice throughout this piece.
The first movement’s main melodies are from an earlier work of mine. The first movement’s main melody regularly descends by a perfect fifth interval. Then later in the first movement, the flute performs a much slower version of this melody, which also recurs in the second movement. The original piece I composed this melody was for a big band and vocal quintet, in which the quintet sings a quote by Isaac Newton: “We build too many walls and not enough bridges.” Although this piece does not have any text, the original melody’s text sparked the idea for these different instruments to unite.
Performers: Dal Niente Ensemble - Constance Volk (flute/alto flute), Katie Schoepflin (A-clarinet/bass clarinet), Minghuan Xu (violin), Juan Horie Phoebus (cello), Michael Lewanski (conductor), Ben Zucker (video)
Trios
Hoxy for flute, horn, and cello (2023)
Duration: 10 minutes
Hoxy was commissioned by the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music and the American Composers Forum. The title is in honor of two recent losses I suffered: Walter Hilse and Roxy Sobel. I
combined their names to form the title: “H” for Hilse and “oxy” for Roxy. I composed the
second movement first, which I wrote in honor of Walter. Walter was an organist, pianist, and
composer, and I was lucky to have him as my mentor. We often performed together, and over the
years, I was fortunate that he composed twelve pieces for me as a singer. As an organist, Walter
frequently played Bach's music, and his compositions were also influenced by Bach. I reference
Walter’s organ background and Bach’s influence on his music by writing a chorale and having
the three instruments blend together to create an organ-like sound.
The first movement was written in honor of my pug dog, Roxy Sobel. Although Roxy was only
a pet, she occupies a special place in my heart. I also knew that Walter, as a huge pet lover who
composed numerous cat songs, would appreciate me writing a piece in honor of my own pet. I
reflect Roxy’s playful nature with a fun, lively dance.
Recording begins at 0:50 in video
Performers: Ráyo Furuta (flute), Amr Selim (French horn), and Christine Lamprea (cello)
Trio for Clarinet, Violin, and Percussion (2018)
Duration: 13.5 minutes
Trio for Clarinet, Violin, and Percussion was commissioned by F-Plus Trio. While composing for F-Plus’ unusual instrumentation, my piece organically evolved into a “traditional” symphonic structure of movements: fast, slow, fast minuet in the third movement, and a fast final fourth movement. In addition, an overarching concept throughout the piece is creating unity between three such distinct musical timbres. As the first movement’s title suggests, “again, again, again,” sounds as if the ensemble is trying and failing to achieve a musical goal. However, the beauty is in the failure. In the second movement, “quiver,” the first movement’s opening motive of an alternating half step is completely transformed through a dramatically slower tempo and hushed stillness quality. While composing the third movement, I crystallized the concept of mapping a symphonic structure onto a trio. I play with the traditional minuet and trio form by beginning the minuet with hushed breath sounds. Pitch is gradually introduced throughout the minuet, but ultimately the movement unravels as the tempo reaches a breakneck speed. The fourth movement “strut” is a play on a march. The percussion and violin play a steady groove over which the clarinet plays with a sinewy and somewhat sinister chromatic descent. Several motives from previous movements are also restated and altered.
Performers: F-Plus - Kate Dreyfuss (violin), Andy Hudson (Bb-clarinet/bass clarinet), Josh Graham (percussion)
Trio for Flute, Violin, and Piano (2011)
Duration: 10 minutes
I wrote Trio for Flute, Violin, and Piano after my grandmother and my beloved pug dog, Cody, both passed away within a month of each other. The piece is dedicated to both of them. The third movement is most clearly inspired by the death of my relatives, but I actually had heard the third movement in my head for nearly a year or two before finally writing it. My relatives’ passing was the catalyst that finally caused me to write down the movement. I wrote the third movement first, originally thinking the piece would be one single contained movement. After I finished composing the third movement, however, I felt the piece was not finished and kept expanding till I wrote the present three-movement piece.
Performers: Chris James (flute), Min Yang (violin), Qin Ding (piano)
Larger Chamber Ensembles
SaxGPT for saxophone octet (2024)
Duration: 8 minutes
SaxGPT was written for the Arizona State University Saxophone Choir and was premiered at the 2024 North American Saxophone Alliance Conference. With technology and information more easily accessible than ever before, we should be more connected. However, when reading the news or viewing social media, it often feels like a battle between which group, person, or platform can shout the loudest, rather than a dialogue. My piece depicts this disconnect through spatially positioning the saxophone octet to surround the audience. The spatial arrangement creates the feeling of being bombarded by different opinions and thoughts. Unlike the siphoning of varying viewpoints in the news and social media, however, my piece ends with a positive wish of the ensemble unifying and coming together.
Performers: Arizona State University Saxophone Choir
Glimmer (2014) for sextet
Original Instrumentation: flute, oboe, acoustic guitar, electric guitar/acoustic guitar, violin, and cello
Alternative Instrumentation: flute, oboe, percussion, violin, viola, and cello
Duration: 10 minutes
Glimmer was commissioned by the New Jersey Composers’ Guild for the Cygnus Ensemble. The title refers to both the music itself and to the ensemble’s name, Cygnus, which is also a star constellation. Likewise, the frequent hocketting (alternating notes back and forth) between different instruments creates a “glimmering” sound that further depicts the stars. The hocketting causes the listener to hear one instrument briefly play a note or two, followed by another instrument continuing the melody. In addition to the melodies “glimmering,” often the individual notes glimmer when one instrument begins the initial attack while another instrument sustains the note. In addition to the hocketting melodies, which are reminiscent of music from the Renaissance and Middle Ages, the use of contrapuntal melodies, especially canons, references early music. On the other hand, the fast pace and strong sense of rhythm were influenced by rock music.
Performers: Cygnus Ensemble: Tara Helen O'Connor (flute), James Austin Smith (oboe), William Anderson (acoustic guitar), Oren Fader (electric guitar/acoustic guitar), Calvin Wiersma (violin), Susannah Chapman (cello)
Mournful Passacaglia and Ethereal Whispers for woodwind quintet (2010)
Duration: 7.5 minutes
The two movements can be performed separately.
1. Mournful Passacaglia
Performers: Miriam Nussbaum (flute/piccolo), Jamie Davis (oboe), Terrance Griswold (bass clarinet), Dana Barrett (horn), Noah Wolfinger (bassoon)
2. Ethereal Whispers
Performers: The West Point Woodwind Quintet: Staff Sergeant Megan Szymanski (flute), Staff Sergeant Anna Pennington (oboe), Sergeant First Class Sam Kaestner (clarinet), Master Sergeant Glenn West (bassoon), Staff Sergeant Nicole Caluori (horn)