composer
Compositions
Works are listed in reverse chronological order.
Most recent compositions are listed first.
Work in Progress
tigerbelly
for alto saxophone and piano
Commissioned by and dedicated to Don-Paul Kahl.
Duration: TBD
Premiere: TBD
Work in Progress
TATTOO
for solo piano
Commissioned by and dedicated to
Duration: TBD
Premiere: TBD
2023
Fruit Snacks: 10 Pieces from "Orchard" for Saxophone Quartet
for saxophone quartet
arranged and revised from "Orchard: 50 Musical Impressions of Fruit."
Commissioned by and dedicated to Project Fusion Saxophone Quartet.
Duration: ca. 14'30"
Premiere: August 16, 2023 | Saint Mary Mother of God Church, Washington, DC | Project Fusion Saxophone Quartet.
Movements:
I. horned melon
II. blackberry
III. prickly pear
IV. watermelon
V. pistachio
VI. nectarine
VII. cherry tomato
VIII. lychee
IX. lemon
X. guava
These 10 selections from Orchard have been arranged, revised, and expanded for saxophone quartet. The title of this collection, Fruit Snacks, comes from the name of a program by Project Fusion Saxophone Quartet that these pieces have been featured on.
Program Notes | Sheet Music Coming Soon!
2023
Three Points Along the Way
for solo keyboard percussion
included as part of Twenty Contemporary Pieces for Vibraphone and Marimba, compiled by Michael Giunta.
Commissioned by and dedicated to a consortium of 43 supporters. Michael Giunta, lead commissioner.
Duration: ca. 10'00"
Premiere: TBD
Movements:
I. July Fourth, Kansas City, MO (for marimba).
II. Fish Within a Fish, Hays, KS (for vibraphone).
III. Mesa, Grand Junction, CO (for vibraphone).
Program Notes
2022
tributary
for low brass soloist + piano
Commissioned by and dedicated to the 2021-2022 Low Brass Consortium J.D. Handshoe, lead commissioner.
Duration: ca. 19'00"
Premiere: July 15, 2022 | International Trombone Festival, Conway, Arkansas | J.D. Handshoe, bass trombone and Michael Seregow, piano
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about my own musical pathways that I’ve taken over the years, both as a listener and as a creator. As a listener, the amount of music that I really love - no matter the genre - has expanded greatly. And yet, I feel as though I’m able to draw a kind of lineage within my musical identity as a listener: some seed was planted years ago with music that turned me onto a particular rhythmic language, for example, which led me to falling in love with music from a similar band, which opened me up to new harmonic realms that led to me discovering the music of one of my favorite composers, and so on, continuing through hundreds of different music makers.
I’m discovering that this same tracing can also be done with the music I compose.
tributary is the 10th piece I’ve written for low brass, which is where I come from as a musician. Every time I return to composing for trombone, euphonium, or tuba, I see it as an opportunity to expand on the pieces I have written for those instruments that came before, incorporating new musical ideas within existing frameworks, sound worlds, harmonic languages, and more. So, tributary features a little bit of the “old me,” while also adding new musical languages to that previous version of myself.
Program Notes
2021
rebirth: an eternal grove | 生まれ変わった魂・永遠の木立
for string quartet
Commissioned by and dedicated to Ranko Shimizu and musicGROVE.
Duration: ca. 20'00"
Premiere: TBA
For the past five years or so, many of my pieces have focused on subjects of nature, such as my solo piano collection Orchard and my tuba concerto Loam. This touchstone is a clear line that runs through my recent music in a programmatic and narrative sense, but more importantly, the musical shapes, textures, and gestures that I seek to create are directly informed by the natural world.
rebirth: an eternal grove is no exception. This work was commissioned by a longtime friend of mine, Ranko Shimizu, who runs an organization in Tokyo called musicGROVE, which programs (western) classical music concerts in traditional Japanese spaces such as shrines and temples. When we first started discussing this piece, nature was at the top of the conversation: the obvious connection that musicGROVE had to natural elements (like a bamboo grove), and the hidden pockets of nature within the Tokyo metropolis, as well as the water that runs through and surrounds Ranko’s hometown of Koto City.
2020
basil eyes
for piano + melodica (one player) or violin + piano
Commissioned by and dedicated to Eunmi Ko.
Duration: ca. 5'00"
Premiere: September 25, 2020 | Tampa, FL (Virtual Concert) | Eunmi Ko, piano
Listen ❘ Download Sheet Music (violin + piano version)
2020
Sycamore
three movements for toy piano (+ optional piano, mvt 3)
Commissioned by and dedicated to Grace Huang.
Duration: ca. 5'00"
Premiere: June 8, 2020 | Athens, GA (virtual event) | Grace Huang, toy piano
Sycamore is a three-movement work for toy piano (with optional piano accompaniment in the final movement) that is a reflection on returning home after some time, and how people and places change - or don't change - over long stretches of time.
2020
Eight Aspects
for violin + piano
Commissioned by and dedicated to E-Na Song and Koki Tanaka.
Duration: ca. 23'00"
Premiere: October 27, 2021 | Tower Fine Arts Center, SUNY Brockport, Brockport, NY | Koki Tanaka, violin and E-Na Song, piano.
Eight Aspects is music that is about the moon in a symbolic sense (although, the eight “aspects” of this work could be interpreted as the eight moon phases). In this case, the moon represents illusions, the subconscious, and something divine yet ambiguous. This imagery is a common thread through the piece, though it is filtered in different ways within each movement. Different moods and characters appear, ranging from fantasy-like escapism to frozen-in-time ritual music; overflowing washes of sound to sharp and pointed textures; and circular gestures that evoke the completeness of a world itself.
Listen | Program Notes | Download Sheet Music
2020
liveoak
for solo Bb clarinet
Commissioned by the 2020 Solo Clarinet Consortium
Alexander W. Ravitz, lead commissioner
Duration: ca. 12'00"
Premiere: October 22, 2022 | International Clarinet Association New Music Weekend (virtual) | Alex Ravitz, clarinet
liveoak is a work for solo clarinet that is about transience: evolving from one state of nature to another, on both micro and macro levels. As the title suggests, the piece is also meant to reflect the general shape of a tree from top to bottom. For example, the slow, longtone-based introduction, with sliding tones and quarter-tone pitches, is meant to represent the roots of a tree, buried under the earth. As the piece goes on, the pitch rises, and there is added clarity to the clarinet tone. Various melodic lines mirror the curving branches of a live oak, and delicate tremolos represent leaves of the tree.
Listen | Program Notes | Download Sheet Music
2019
West of the Sun
for orchestra
3(pic).3(ehn).3(bcl).3(cbn)/2.2.2.0/3perc/pno/strings
Commissioned by Dr. William Wiedrich and the University of South Florida Symphony Orchestra
Duration: ca. 9'00"
Premiere: April 14, 2019 | Tampa, FL | University of South Florida Symphony Orchestra | Dr. William Wiedrich, conductor
The title, West of the Sun, has multiple meanings to me: most directly, it references Haruki Murakami’s novel South of the Border, West of the Sun, and more generally this piece draws inspiration from Murakami’s body of works. In South of the Border, West of the Sun, the main character’s name is Hajime (はじめ) which translates to “beginning” or “genesis” in English. The idea of genesis plays an important role in the beginning of this piece: my goal was to wholly create the sound world of the piece right from the start, as if the listener opened a door and was suddenly in a different universe.
Program Notes | Listen | Contact for Score + Parts
2018
Orchard: 50 Musical Impressions of Fruit
for solo piano
Commissioned by the 2018 Kline Piano Project Commissioning Consortium
Variable Duration: 0'45" - 68'00"
Premiere: March 31, 2018 | Tampa, FL | Selections premiered by Dr. Eunmi Ko's piano studio
An orchard is a plot of land used to plant and harvest fruit trees. This collection includes fifty pieces, ranging from 45 seconds to just over three minutes, all titled after, and, in one way or another, inspired by botanical fruit. When composing each piece, I considered the various features of a particular fruit in order to arrive at compositional decisions. So, in essence, the music takes on my interpretation of a fruit’s texture, shape, color, or flavor - either in combination or focusing on just one of those elements. To this end, given the brevity of each piece, I almost see these as “seeds” of what could be more long-form musical ideas. Each piece lasts long enough to express a specific idea - to “make a point” - and then it’s over. There’s no further development or variation, and no kind of extension into a formal pattern. My goal, then, is that when audiences listen to this music they will experience something similar to actually eating a fruit: the experience is brief, but satisfying.
Program Notes | Listen | Download Sheet Music
2017
Salt Veins
for horn in F + trombone + piano
Commissioned by and dedicated to Some Assembly Required
Duration: ca. 6'00"
Premiere: February 9, 2018 | Salem, MA | Some Assembly Required
Salt Veins, more or less, is a work about the ocean and the influence of the ocean on the land (and people) that it touches. In 2013, I moved from land-locked Kentucky to Tampa, FL for graduate school - a move that I expected to be a brief stop along my career path (as of writing this piece I’m still here) - and that change, both academically and geographically, has had a tremendous impact on my compositional work. This piece is a reflection on the geographic nature of that change.
Program Notes | Listen | Perusal Score | Download Sheet Music
2017
ghost is born
for clarinet + bassoon + harp
Commissioned by and dedicated to Jessica Pollack (Chamber Music with Friends).
Duration: ca. 5'45"
Premiere: January 5, 2018 | Rockledge, FL | Jessica Pollack (clarinet), JJ Sechan (bassoon), and Haley Rhodeside (harp)
The primary overarching concept of ghost is born is the idea of something that is not real emerging from what is real. This is represented musically by the sound in between the actual music happening: sound that is perceived, but not necessarily intended.
Program Notes | Listen | Perusal Score | Download Sheet Music
2017
The Rainy Season
for clarinet in Bb + euphonium + percussion
Commissioned by and dedicated to Jake East.
Duration: 9'00"
Premiere: July 19, 2017 | Hazard, KY | Amanda Martin (clarinet), Jake East (euphonium), and Gloria Yehilevsky (percussion)
In The Rainy Season the percussion is the primary voice which informs the content which the other performers play. Each of these percussion interludes focus on a distinct texture, ranging from more sparse musical content (such as at the beginning of the work), to more pulse-oriented music. Each section features a kind of crescendo, then decrescendo, and the piece repeats this pattern a number of times, as if emulating the rains which come each day in a rainy season.
Program Notes | Listen | Perusal Score | Download Sheet Music
2017
The Wind Carries Relics
for euphonium + piano
Commissioned by and dedicated to Aaron Campbell.
Duration: ca. 6'00"
Premiere: May 10, 2018 | Tallahassee, FL | Aaron Campbell (euphonium) and Valerie Trujillo (piano)
Involuntary memory refers to a type of memory that occurs when a cue in everyday life evokes recollections of the past without any deliberate effort. This concept was first acknowledged by French novelist Marcel Proust, in his novel In Search of Lost Time, in which he famously describes an episode of involuntary memory after tasting a madeleine dipped in tea. This idea of Involuntary, or Proustian, Memory is the central concept behind The Wind Carries Relics.
Program Notes | Listen | Perusal Score | Download Sheet Music
2017
Stillness left from empty husks
for flute + clarinet in Bb + horn in F
Commissioned by the 2017 Woodwind Trio Consortium
v3n Trio, lead commissioners
Duration: ca. 10'00"
Premiere: TBA
Stillness left from empty husks evolved from the idea of creating a multi-movement and multi-character work that straddles the line between what is familiar and what is alien. The title of the piece comes from a short poem, and much of the textural, gestural, and narrative aspects of the work draw from the imagery the title evokes. This concept focuses on stillness vs. unrest, micro- and macro-level memory, and extended sounds utilized in a programmatic fashion.
Program Notes | Perusal Score | Download Sheet Music
2017
Fragments: Set II (winter)
for solo euphonium
Commissioned by Jake East
Duration: ca. 8'00"
Premiere: May 4, 2017 | Tampa, FL | Jake East (euphonium)
Winter Fragments is the second set in an ongoing series called Fragments, for solo euphonium. Each set of Fragments focuses on a particular season, and consists of 8 miniature movements (approx. 1 min each), The title and character of each movement is taken from a fragment of a Matsuo Basho haiku.
Program Notes | Listen | Perusal Score | Download Sheet Music
2016
Loam: concerto for tuba and percussion ensemble
for tuba + piano + 5 percussion
Commissioned by Robert McCormick and the McCormick Percussion Group
Duration: ca. 28'00"
Premiere: November 5, 2017 | Tampa, FL | Joseph Alvarez (tuba) and the McCormick Percussion Group | Robert McCormick, conductor
Metaphorically, the general arc of Loam is that as living beings we are born from the earth and then return to it. In this way, the piece could be viewed as a musical meditation on death. There is a duality throughout the concerto between reality and un-reality (or, perhaps, living and dead), which is often represented by the switching between low-pitched textures and high-pitched textures. In other words, lower-sounding music metaphorically represents something being grounded, and higher-sounding music is more dream-like.
Program Notes | Listen | Contact for Score and Parts
2016
Collapsing Geography
for oboe + marimba
Commissioned by Ursula Sahagian
Duration: ca. 12'00"
Premiere: January 26, 2017 | Seattle, WA | Ursula Sahagian (oboe) and Melanie Voytovich, marimba
Collapsing Geography is a work in three movements for oboe and marimba, commissioned by oboist Ursula Sahagian. The title refers to the overall arc and texture of the piece on macro and micro levels. For example, the piece seems to “collapse” over the course of the three movements, moving from a rigid texture in the first movement to a more free and rubato texture by the third movement. Similar processes also occur within each movement.
Program Notes | Listen | Perusal Score | Download Sheet Music
2016
Flay
for trombone + viola
Commissioned by Justin Croushore and Emma Hughey
Duration: 5'00"
Premiere: July 17, 2016 | Waterville, ME | Justin Croushore (trombone) and Emma Hughey (viola)
flay
verb
to peel the skin off (a corpse or carcass).
Program Notes | Listen | Perusal Score | Download Sheet Music
2016
honeycomb
for piccolo + piano
Commissioned by Brittany Primavera
Duration: ca. 5'00"
Premiere: January 22, 2019 | Tampa, FL | Francesca Arnone (piccolo) + Eunmi Ko (piano)
honeycomb is a work for piccolo and piano that uses a cyclical pitch-set system to create a musical environment for the two instruments to interact within. Like an actual honeycomb, this cycle is based off of a hexagonal shape: the six sections of the piece consist of six tetrachords that are transposed in alternating intervals. These tetrachords are occur in three sets of two, moving from an open to closed interval structure.
Program Notes | Listen | Perusal Score | Download Sheet Music
2016
blood moon
for clarinet in Bb + piano + violin + cello
Commissioned by the Phoenix Quartet for their "Time Deconstructed" project
Duration: ca. 4'00"
Premiere: January 31, 2016 | New York City, NY | Phoenix Quartet
Blood Moon is a work composed in 2015 as part of the Phoenix Quartet’s Messiaen+ Project. The work is based off of, and, in many ways, deconstructs Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. Much of the harmonic material throughout Blood Moon is taken directly from Quartet for the End of Time and the overall form of the work is proportional to non-retrogradable rhythms found throughout Messiaen’s piece.
Program Notes | Listen | Perusal Score | Download Sheet Music
2015
render
for trombone (tenor or bass) + fixed media playback
Commissioned by the 2015 Trombone Commissioning Consortium
JD Handshoe, lead commissioner
Duration: ca. 9'00"
Premiere: December 12, 2015 | Lexington, KY | JD Handshoe (bass trombone)
The word “render” has a variety of meanings: to provide, to become (or cause to be), or, as a noun, the first coat of plaster applied to a brick or stone surface. render draws on these multiple meanings indirectly and could represent any or all of them. The overall development of the work invokes the act of becoming, slowly transforming from a more drawn-out beginning to a pointed, rhythmic middle section - and back to ethereal.
Program Notes | Listen | Perusal Score | Download Sheet Music
2015
Fragments: Set I (summer)
for solo euphonium
Commissioned by Jake East
Duration: ca. 7'00"
Premiere: October 20, 2015 | Morehead, KY | Jake East (euphonium)
Fragments takes its name from the nature in which the piece is constructed, or, rather, deconstructed: the work consists of eight miniature movements titled after lines from two different Matsuo Basho haikus and may be performed in any order at the discretion of the performer. The work is intended to express a particular sonic idea evoked by each fragment of poetry as concisely as possible in each movement. Because of this, musical material often goes beyond melody and harmony, utilizing various extended sounds that can be created on the euphonium as a central focus.
Program Notes | Listen | Perusal Score | Download Sheet Music
2015
become/decay
for flute + horn in F
Commissioned by Jennifer Cooper and Zach Cooper
Duration: ca. 6'00"
Premiere: November 8, 2015 | Lexington, KY | Jennifer Cooper (flute) and Zach Cooper (horn)
Wabi-sabi is a Japanese aesthetic principle that is centered on the acceptance of the natural cycle of growth, decay, and death. In visual art and design, this is often reflected through wear and tear: rugged and aged, but never sloppy. This concept has become a focus of my compositional work, as it reveres simplicity, authenticity, and imperfection. become/decay is my first work to acknowledge this principle and derives its name and material from the idea of Wabi-sabi.
Program Notes | Listen | Perusal Score | Download Sheet Music
2015
fastigia
for bass clarinet + fixed media playback
Commissioned by choreographer Sarah Walston
Duration: ca. 8'00"
Premiere: April 22, 2015 | Tampa, FL | Alex Ravitz, bass clarinet
fastigia was originally composed as music to accompany dance, commissioned by choreographer Sarah Walston. The work was composed after much of the choreography was completed, and because of this, formal structures and musical gestures were directly influenced by the existing dance.
Program Notes | Listen | Perusal Score
2015
UNIT
for two percussion + live electronics
Written for Sean Hamilton and Kevin von Kampen
Duration: ca. 6'30"
Premiere: May 19, 2021 | Cincinnati, OH (virtual event) | Grover von Kampen Duo
2015
Raissa
for piano + violin + double bass
Commissioned by Strings & Hammers
Duration: ca. 5'00"
Premiere: April 6, 2018 | Tampa, FL | Eunmi Ko (piano), Sini Virtanen (violin), and Lloyd Goldstein (double bass)
Raissa is a short work comprised of a single melodic thread that runs through the entire work and is passed around the ensemble, similar to the German klangfarbenmelodie (sound-color melody). This melodic thread is veiled for almost the entirety of the work, and is done so through the use of various extended sounds and dynamic contrasts. Structurally, the work consists of fragments of this thread that frequently come to a rest (at fermatas) before continuing again.
Program Notes | Listen | Perusal Score | Download Sheet Music
2015
Remaining Vestiges
for tuba + piano
Commissioned by Jarrod Williams
Duration: ca. 8'30"
Premiere: March 17, 2015 | Springfield, MO | Jarrod Williams (tuba)
As a composer, I feel that it’s my duty to constantly be looking forward; trying new things, exploring new sounds, and generally redefining what music means to me. This shift in my thinking occurred during my time in graduate school, and it still dominates the way I approach composing today. However, there are times that projects necessitate looking back on what my work used to be like: Remaining Vestiges is one such project, and that action of “looking back” is where the title of this piece comes from.
Program Notes | Perusal Score | Download Sheet Music
2014
Basic Research 2
for vibraphone + voice (1 player)
Commissioned by Kevin von Kampen
Duration: ca. 9'00"
Premiere: February 18, 2015 | Tampa, FL | Kevin von Kampen (vibraphone + voice)
Basic Research 2 is a work for soloist performing vibraphone, spoken word, and singing, composed in 2014. The work draws on concepts and text from the Dadaist anti-art movement, which took place from 1916 – 1923. Much of the work is theatrical and requires the performer to speak and sing in English, French, and German. Linearly, the text is meant to be absurd, and throughout the work, the performer is required to carry out nearly ridiculous musical tasks.
Program Notes | Listen | Perusal Score | Download Sheet Music
2014
cello music
for solo cello
Commissioned by and dedicated to Maria Hadge.
Duration: ca. 8'00"
Premiere: March 29, 2015 | New York City, NY | Maria Hadge, cello
Composed during the summer of 2014, cello music is a work that explores the various timbres the solo cello can create through various methods of bowing, harmonics, and articulation. The work was developed closely with cellist Maria Hadge, and much of the material was born out of testing various ways of creating sounds on the instrument. For much of the piece, cello music is also a test of endurance, requiring the cellist to perform non-stop sixteenth notes throughout.
Program Notes | Listen | Perusal Score | Download Sheet Music
2014
On the Substance of Multiplicity
for flute + clarinet in Bb (doubling bass clarinet) + percussion + piano + violin + cello
Composed for the 2014 Atlantic Music Festival Contemporary Ensemble
Duration: ca. 7'00"
Premiere: July 31, 2014 | Waterville, ME | Atlantic Music Festival Contemporary Ensemble; Mark Biggins, conductor
On the Substance of Multiplicity is inspired by the ideas presented in Italo Calvino’s set of lectures, Six Memos for the Next Millennium. The lectures detail five different literary values that Calvino believes must exist in the 21st century: lightness, quickness, exactitude, visibility, and multiplicity. A sixth, consistency, was left incomplete at the time of Calvino’s death.
Program Notes | Listen | Perusal Score | Download Sheet Music
2014
Basic Research 1
for euphonium (or tuba) + fixed electronics
Commissioned by and dedicated to Jake East.
Duration: ca. 8'00"
Premiere: April 25, 2014 | Tampa, FL | Tyler Kline, euphonium
Basic Research 1 is a work for euphonium and stereo playback composed in the spring of 2014. The primary focus of this work is to utilize electronic soundscapes in a way that blends and contrasts with the euphonium tone. Throughout the work, this is accomplished by creating moments where the electronics “bloom” out from the euphonium, as well as performs in counterpoint and call and response with the live performer. Likewise, the euphonium imitates the electronics by way of tone-color trills, flutter tonguing, and growls to create a sense of unity between the acoustic and electronic.
Program Notes | Listen | Perusal Score
2013
sinfonietta
for chamber orchestra
Duration: ca. 11'00"
Premiere: June 7, 2014 | Seattle, WA | Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra; Geoffrey Larson, conductor
Composed in late 2013, sinfonietta is a work for chamber ensemble that explores large-scale structure, dodecaphony (twelve-tone technique), and timbral coloring. One of the primary interests in the work was to create a form that climaxes early and slowly decays over the course of the remaining time. Because of this, the work is split into two parts – a more disjunctive, dissonant section at the beginning, followed by a longer meditative section that courses through pandiatonic harmonies to end the piece.
Program Notes | Listen | Perusal Score | Contact for Sheet Music
2012
Different Worlds
for flute + alto saxophone
Commissioned by Awea Duo (Jennifer Cooper, flute and Masahito Sugihara, saxophone)
Duration: ca. 8'00"
Premiere: October 18, 2012 | Morehead, KY | Awea Duo
Different Worlds is a two-part work for flute and alto saxophone written for Morehead State University (KY) faculty chamber group Awea Duo. The piece is a reflection of a trip to China I took in early summer of 2012.
Listen | Perusal Score | Purchase Sheet Music
2012
For Those That Wander
for euphonium + piano
Duration: ca. 8'00"
Premiere: April 12, 2012 | Morehead, KY | Tyler Kline (euphonium) and Eunbyol Ko (piano)
For Those That Wander is a through-composed rhapsody for euphonium and piano with open intervallic melodic gestures and a subtly driving rhythmic and harmonic structure. The work unfolds in three parts – a gentle, floating opening; a brief moment of respite; and a driving, raucous closing.
Listen | Perusal Score | Purchase Sheet Music
2010
in spite of thought and reason, we dream
for trombone + piano (alternate versions for other instruments available)
Written for Justin Croushore
Duration: ca. 6'00"
Premiere: December 2, 2010 | Morehead, KY | Justin Croushore (trombone) + Eunbyol Ko (piano)
in spite of thought and reason, we dream is a snapshot of who I was as a composer when I was 19-years old. This piece was written years before I received a formal training in composition, and composed in a completely different way than the way I compose now (in 2021). That being said, this was the piece that affirmed my desire to pursue a life as a composer. I’m very thankful for my friend, trombonist Justin Croushore, who had the patience to work with me and perform this piece in 2010, and for his faith in the piece in the decade-plus since he first premiered it.
Download Sheet Music (trombone + piano) | Download Sheet Music (tuba or bass trombone + piano)