Composer and Tenor
Instrumental Music with Theater
Can we just stop this already?
Premiered: Sept 27, 2020
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Vanessa Holroyd, flute/piccolo
Kemp Jernigan, oboe
Chuck Ferlong, clarinet
Hazel Dean Davis, horn
Rachel Elliott, bassoon
Duration: 5 min
Purchase the score here!
This wind quintet depicts clown-like humor with a rebellious player and the rest of the group calming them down.
How to Sneak in the Night
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Premiered September 26, 2020
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Daniel Venglar, trumpet
Patrick Wu, violin
Quinn Gutman, voiceover
Duration: 4 min.
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Were you ever in the forest late at night and don't know what to do? This will be your guide.
Tossing and Turning
Commissioned by Evan Miller
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percussion/spoken word
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Text by John Updike
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Premiered June 2016
As the percussionist plays the vibraphone, they speak the poem by John Updike about all the troubles one has waking up in the middle of the night and moving around on the bed, hoping that that will put you back to sleep.
Let’s Keep in Touch
Read by SŌ Percussion
2015
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Duration: 8:30
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This percussion quartet tells a general story of four friends growing up together, going their separate ways, and staying in touch via letters. At the beginning of the piece, the four percussionists circle around a vibraphone, playing as a unit. Then, one at a time, they each walk away from the vibraphone to their own separate stations. Occasionally, one of the four goes back to the vibraphone, “writing a letter” to another one of the four. The piece ends with all four coming back to the vibraphone, playing together again.
Alone Amongst Everyone Else
Premiered: July 27, 2015
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Evan Miller, Tiago Calderano, and Maxwell Kolpin percussion
Duration: 8:28
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A theatrical flashmob piece for three percussionists. It’s called a flashmob piece because it’s meant to be performed randomly in a place where people go to for socializing, and almost never expect to see a performance. The performers initially blend in with the crowd, then randomly start playing this piece. The musicians play their instruments no differently than how a normal person would read a book or work on their laptop in this setting, not paying any mind to the people around them. The first percussionist, called the Protagonist, plays woodblock. The other two are Peer 1, who plays glockenspiel, and Peer 2, who plays an assortment of table percussion. Each of the three percussionists have a character that they act out. It tells a story of social anxiety and how that leads to low self esteem and depression.
It’s Coming (and You Can’t Ignore it)
Premiered: June 2014
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Ari Streisfeld and Alexandra Matloff violins
John Pickford Richards viola
Georgiy Khoklov cello
Jessica Woodbridge King bassoon
Duration: 9:04
Purchase the score here!
Purchase the parts here!
Purchase the score and parts here!
This piece tells the story about a victim (or victims) being confronted by Death. The piece begins with the string quartet playing the opening fugue to Beethoven’s op. 131. Gradually, they make more and more mistakes until it's clear they're not able to play it. Then the bassoon walks in, pretends to be a typical person and continues playing with the quartet. Once it's revealed that the bassoonist is actually Death and they are all meeting their end, the quartet resists, but then eventually except their fate, playing Schubert's Death and the Maiden.