Compositions
For piano and saxophones
August 2017
My compositional contributions to the album "Balance." This project is a collaborative project between myself and saxophonist Marcus Elliot, and together we very much shape each other's music. We've written and performed a lot of new music since this album, and this project continues to evolve and grow in new and exciting ways.
Purchase the score here.
For Soprano and Two Pianos
Text by Carmen Malis King
May 2017
Duration: ~7 minutes
John Knowles Paine Concert Hall
Harvard University
Wednesday, December 6th, 2023
Isabella Meyer, voice
Tabitha Chen-Fiske, piano
Sage Shurman, piano
Music 186: Contemporary Chamber Music
Directed by Claire Chase, Professor of the Practice, Harvard University
Carmen is one of my favorite poets in the world, and also happens to be my wife. I'm grateful to her for lending me these three pre-existing fragments for the sake of this piece. I wrote this piece while we were engaged, and I believe it brought me closer to her and we prepared for marriage.
This piece deals with cycles, and particularly deals with cycles that are two slow to perceive but are nonetheless present, embedding cycles on a structural level.
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I would love if someone wanted me to arrange this for one piano and voice. Or maybe for piano, voice, and percussion? If you’re interested, let’s talk.
Purchase the score and Max/MSP patch here.
For improvising pianist and interactive score
February 2017
Duration: ~10 minutes
Etude No. 1 is a concert etude for an improvising pianist. By definition, an etude focuses on specific technical challenges. This etude keeps with that tradition by focusing on challenges related to improvisational technique. It takes as a starting point a relatively limited scope of material, and presents the pianist with several points of entry into that material. This particular etude uses a single pitch collection as its starting point, deriving all of its material from that one collection.
The score for this piece is triggered using Max. The score is split up into seven “scenes”. In all but one scene, the performer is required to manually advance from one scene to the next. One scene moves automatically to the next scene.
The score in the PDF reader below is a PDF version of the Max patch. If you'd like to purchase the Max patch or the PDF version of the score, contact me directly.
Purchase the score here.
For solo piano and delay pedal
November 2016
Duration: ~11 minutes
A meditation on homes and ghosts.
A month after moving into a new apartment with my then-fianceé Carmen, I turned randomly to a page in the I Ching. The hexagram listed was called "People in the Home". This became a mantra for thinking about spaces -- who occupies them, and what ghosts from previous occupants linger.
I think of this piece as a character study; it's meant to evoke a particular mood more than sound a particular way.
Brought to life masterfully by Sonya Belaya.
For fourteen players
November 2016, Revised November 2020
Duration: ~7 minutes
Purchase the score here, and the score and parts here.
At the time I was writing this piece, I was spending a lot of time with Ornette Coleman’s Peace, Arthur Russell’s Tower of Meaning, Gil Evans’ arrangements on the Miles Davis album Birth of the Cool, and Wayne Shorter’s Alegría. The instrumentation is:
Flute
English Horn
Clarinet in Bb
Bassoon
Horn in F
Flugelhorn
Trombone
Vibraphone, Suspended Cymbal (one player)
Bass Drum, Glockenspiel (one player)
Violin
Viola
Cello
Bass
This piece has never been performed, and I would absolutely love to have someone play it one day. If you’d like to play it, please contact me.
