Instrumental Works
Chamber
Flenseplassen (2022)
For Harp, Guitar, Marimba, and Bassoon.
Written for and performed by Ensemble Dal Niente in residency at the University of Florida. Off the coast of eastern Greenland, a town of fewer than 3000 people hunt whales and bring them to the beach for their families to butcher. This location is locally known as Flenseplassen, and off the coast, whale bones scatter the ocean floor. A photo taken by the photographer Alex Dawson captures the striking image of whale bones in a cold underwater world, mixed in with a driver exploring this world while being so close to the shore. In his Instagram caption, he brings up the question, “How do you feel about small isolated societies and their way of living?” This piece strives to explore this contrast between a cold image and the realities of a community surviving from this. Image: https://www.instagram.com/p/CbVoU8uAd0f/
Six (2021)
For Piano and Percussion
Six is directly inspired by the video game ‘Little Nightmares’ and explores the childlike qualities of the game combined with the horror. Creating music with the intention of giving the listener a negative, fearful emotion rather than a happier one was a new experience in creating this piece, but essential as a composer to be able to learn how to communicate many different feelings fully.
Fractus (2020)
For Violin, Cello, and Piano
Fractus was workshopped and performed by Longleash in residency at the University of Louisville, as part of the Fall 2019 and Fall 2020 iterations of UofL’s New Music Festival.
Color Movements (2020)
For Brass Quintet
Color Movements was created to explore this concept and attempt to showcase how specific colors make me feel.
Solo
Seasons (2022)
For Solo Violin
Seasons for solo violin represent my thoughts and feelings about the changes of the seasons. While the weather changes largely influence my thoughts about these times of the year, annual events and holidays also influence my views. For example, while Fall is beautiful with the changing of the leaves and cool weather, it also represents new changes and the beginning of the end of the year.
January (2019)
For Solo Piano
January was written originally as a composition project but later turned into a full piece. The name of the piece comes from the month it was written in, but it is about January and all of the fresh and new ideas that it comes with January and the new year.
Orchestra
Sora (2023)
For full Orchestra
The inspiration behind the composition for Sora came from a kinetic light installation created by Noemi Schipfer and Takami Nakamoto. While the installation is based on artificial light and its various forms, the word Sora means sky in Japanese, which felt like a dichotomy of natural and artificial light. The idea of using man-made light to create a new sky stuck with me, and I wanted to see if I could explore these ideas in my own way through music. Sora is based on the pitches in the spectral analysis of a buzzing light that I made using the program SPEAR. While I wanted to explore the challenge of recreating the sound of a buzzing light within an orchestra, I also wanted to guide the listener to all the different harmonic and rhythmic interactions that can make something like a buzzing light feel almost alive.
It was just the Snow (2021)
For String Orchestra
It Was Just the Snow is loosely based on the folktale “Yuki-Onna” or “snow woman.” The piece starts as a blizzard is about to form, isolating someone into their home. In the middle of the storm, this person imagines that they hear another person out in the blizzard that will keep them company from the isolation of this storm. They soon realize that it was just their imagination and lose the comfort they had in the idea of not being alone in the blizzard.