Living Must Be Done Out Loud (2009) 10'

Written in collaboration with poet Ralph Nazareth.
[For 12 voices (SSSAAATTTBBB) and percussion]
31 October 2009, Auer Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

Program Note

i. My screams, or her screams or his

Have I said that prison is a fire that seems to always be able to roar the loudest, to spread the furthest, to swallow the most, and to spare the least?

Listen to i. My screams, or her screams or his:

ii. I’ll reflect your thoughts as light on the brightest snow

I’ll reflect your thoughts as light on the brightest snow.
She turned the seas into skies.
They rage until their souls are spent.
Why am I here on this planet, in the country, this space, this time?
She turned the seas into skies, desiring to gaze upon finnied constellations.
I’ll reflect your thoughts as light on the brightest snow.

Listen to ii. I’ll reflect your thoughts as light on the brightest snow:

During the summer of 2009, I received a research grant from the Hutton Honors College at Indiana University to work with friend and poet, Ralph Nazareth in compiling a text for what would come to be Living Must Be Done Out Loud. Ralph, a professor of English in New York City participates in a program that brings a variety of classes to a select group of men incarcerated in Greenhaven, New York. Within this program, he teaches a creative writing class. Over the years, Ralph has collected piles and piles of essays, poems, prose, streams of consciousness, rambles, angry rants, letters, rhymes and every other kind of written word. My job, this summer was to sift through these heaps and extract phrases that I thought were particularly poignant – ones that I thought would sit well in a musical idiom: ones that that did not victimize these men, patronize or exalt them – phrases that simply shed light on their humanity – on our collective humanity. The text that I’ve chosen to set in the first movement, My screams, or her screams or his comes from a longer essay by a man named Carl Brown who opens with the question, “Have I said what it sounds like when a heart breaks inside a prison?” He describes in great detail the feeling of being caught in the midst of an androgynous scream that exists only to suck our souls dry and leave us with little more than the ashes of our remains. The second movement, I’ll reflect your thoughts as light on the brightest snow, is a quilt of small phrases that illuminates the tension between complete ecstasy and utter despair. This dichotomy is one that remains particularly potent throughout many of the writings and one that speaks to the whims of our existence.

Orchestral

Chamber

Solo

Vocal

Orchestral Works

Ringing the Quiet (2011) 5'
Written for the Britten-Pears Programme at Aldeburgh Music.
[For chamber orchestra]
22 July 2011, Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Snape, Suffolk, UK
22 June 2012 (forthcoming), Aldeburgh Festival, Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Snape, Suffolk, UK

Concerto for Violin and Chamber Orchestra (2009 rev. 2010) 14'
Awards: 2010 Morton Gould Young Composer Honorable Mention from the ASCAP Foundation;
Certificate of Achievement from New York Youth Symphony's First Music 27;
2010 Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra's commissioning prize.
[two versions: 1(picc).1(eh).1.1/1.1.1/2perc/hrp/pno(cel)/s. vln/2.1.1.1 or 1(picc).1(eh).1.1/1.1.1/2perc/pno/s. vln/2.1.1.1]
31 October 2009, Auer Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
31 July 2010, Jewett Fine Arts Center Auditorium, Wellesley Composers Conference, Wellesley, MA (Wellesley Sinfonietta)

The Riddle Man's Night Song (2008) 3'
Written for Indiana University's Kids Compose project.
[For full orchestra]
15 April 2009, Musical Arts Center, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN (IndianaUniversity Concert Orchestra)

Chamber Works

Szymborska Poems (2009) 17' [For flute and piano]
Awarded the 2010 Dean's Prize at Indiana University; 31 October 2009, Auer Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN (Alan Tomasetti, flute; Bethany Pietroniro, piano)

Duo (2008) 6' [For violin and cello]
Selected for perfomance in the 2009 Midwest Composers' Symposium; 9 July 2008, Neue Synagogue, Berlin, Germany; 14 February 2009, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Michigan (Sarah Saviet, violin; Yotam Baruch, cello)

...from travelers' accounts (2008) 17' [For violin, horn and piano]
16 April 2009, Auer Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN (Romuald Grimbert-Barré, violin; Julia Filson, horn; Batiste Rodrigues, piano)

Three Scarlet Moods (2007) 14' [For clarinet and piano]
Commissioned by the Brillaner Duo.; Awarded a 2007 Morton Gould Young Composer Award from the ASCAP Foundation; 28 October 2007, Concert Artist Guild Auditions, New York, NY; 18 October 2007, TriArea Concerts, Philadelphia, PA; 16 April 2007, Williams Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston, MA; (All performances were given by the Brillaner Duo.)

Diversions (2006) 12' [For cello and piano]
5 August 2007, Salle de Colone, Fountainbleau, France (Rachel Gawell, cello and Peter Liou, piano); 20 February 2007, Auer Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN (Maria DiMeglio, cello; Bethany Pietroniro, piano)

String Trio (2006) 9' [For violin, viola and cello]
Written for the Yellow Barn Young Artists' Program.; June 2006, Yellow Barn Concert Hall, Putney, VT (Laura Lutzke, violin; Wendy Richman, viola; Patrick McGuire, cello)

Reflections on the Stations of the Cross (2006) 15' [For two cellos]
14 April 2006, Sacred Heart Church, Haworth, NJ

String Quartet (2005) 12' [For two violins, viola and cello]

Duo (2004) 5' [For violin and cello]

Solo Works

Prelude Number One Entitled the Egocentric Woman Thief (2010) 5' [For piano solo]
Written for the Freund-Haguenauer studio collaboration at Indiana University.
8 April, 2010, Ford Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN (Colin DeJong, piano)

Chaconne (2007) 6' [For violin solo]
Written for Hammer and Nail, a collaborative project with the Indiana University Modern Dance Department.
27 April 2007, Waldron Arts Center, Bloomington, IN
28 April 2007, Waldron Arts Center, Bloomington, IN (Jenna Sherry, violin)

Image (2007) 5' [For piano solo]
Written for the Freund-Haguenauer studio collaboration at Indiana University.
12 April 2007, Ford Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN (Jonathan Oddie, piano)

Doodle (2006) 4' [For clarinet solo]
June 2006, Recorded at the Yellow Barn Young Artists' Program by Shirley Brill.

Colored Leaf, Fallen (2005) 3' [For flute solo]

Vocal/Choral Works

Living Must Be Done Out Loud (2009) 10' [For 12 voices (SSSAAATTTBBB) and percussion]
Written in collaboration with poet Ralph Nazareth.
31 October 2009, Auer Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

Glass (2005) 3' [For soprano and piano]