How Long?? Has This Been Going On?

From a recent trip to the coast with some friends and their amazing Search and Rescue dog, Striga.

After a long hiatus from the blog, I’m attempting to revive my writings and music sharing here! It’s been such a whirlwind the last few months, and I have so much to share. This post will be a bit of a “ketchup” of what I’ve “mustered” up (pun fans can relish that)—and I hope to return soon with a lot more on the pieces I’m currently writing!

Albums!

The first thing I want to highlight is all of the fantastic recordings that have / are about to come out that feature my music. You can learn more about each album by clicking on the pictures below—or check out the Albums, EPs, and Singles page for more.

Aviary, Elizabeth Robinson (March 2023)

The Aerocade Music Compilation (March 2023)

Still Waters, Chris Opperman (Coming Soon!)

Many Faces, Nicole Gillotti (Summer 2023!)

Recent Premieres

Recently, I’ve had an embarrassment of premiers and performances. I’m so excited to share more about these works and the awesome musicians who brought them to life!

Road Trip 101

Commissioned by Sarah V. Hetrick (saxophone), Nicole Gillotti (trumpet), and Tatiana Gorbunova (piano), Road Trip 101 was inspired by a recent trip along the 101 coastal highway. This fantastic trio premiered the work as part of the University of Arkansas SHE Festival, celebrating music by women. A three movement piece, this substantial work has been in process since fall of 2022, and it was such a delight to work with this group on the premiere.

Fowl Play

Commissioned by Elizabeth Robinson, Fowl Play is a multi-movement work for flute quartet inspired by the book Extraordinary Chickens. Each of the four movements uses a different combination of flutes, piccolos, bass, and alto flutes to capture the quirky beauty of Polish, Golden Duckwing Phoenix, Silkie, and Sumatra chickens. The live premiere took place as part of the Florida Flute Association 47th Annual Membership Convention, and is now available as a professional recording on Elizbeth’s album Aviary—featuring other fabulous bird-inspired works, including our Project 12 collaboration Hoppy Feet. Elizabeth and I are also brainstorming for a future project, so stay tuned for more flute music in the future!

ROOTED

Premiered as part of the North American Saxophone Alliance (NASA) conference in March, ROOTED was commissioned by Sarah V. Hetrick (saxophone) and Paul Millette (marimba). The piece is inspired by the use of root imagery in the paintings of Frida Kahlo, and was written in response to images found in her diary.

Seek What You Want to Find

Photo by Rachel Hadiashar

This huge collaborative concert featured new works by local poets and composers as part of an evening capturing reactions to the 2020 protests in Portland. You can read a blog post capturing the performance by clicking here, but there will be a video of my new piece, Seek What You Want to Find posted later this month. The text was by Dr. S. Renee Mitchell, and responds to paintings by internationally-famed artist Henk Pander, which were on display at the venue. The paintings displayed captured both a historic flood (the 1948 Vanport Flood) and the 2020 protests in Portland. It was the honor of a lifetime to have soloists Vakare Petroliunaite, Cecille Elliott, Brandon Michael, and DeReau K. Farrar perform the work with Resonance Ensemble, along with a fantastic string quartet from Fear No Music. I had not yet had a performance of my music in Portland, so to have so much of my community involved and to have the topic be so deeply tied to Portland and its history, was a truly inspiring experience.

At a rehearsal with fellow guest composers Judy A. Rose and Kenji Bunch. What a treat to hear their new works, as well!

Hombres Necios

Jennifer Piazza-Pick and Natalie Groom at the Arts Club of Washington in DC!

Commissioned by the awesome duo, Whistling Hens, this work is a setting of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s famous poem “Hombres Necios” for clarinet (Natalie Groom) and soprano (Jennifer Piazza-Pick). Sor Juana was a Mexican writer, philosopher, composer, poet, and Hieronymite nun—her witty and insightful writings still hold relevance today, despite being written in the late 1600’s. This particular poem calls out the double-standards of what men sought from women’s behavior; one of my favorite lines from the poem reads “How strange is the humor of he who mists the mirror, and then complains it is not clear!” Setting the poem in Spanish was a fun challenge, and this virtuosic work came to life thanks to the great feedback of from Whistling Hens. They premiered the work at the Women's History Month celebration at the Arts Club of Washington, and later performed it at College Music Society’s conference.

Three trombone works

As part of the Neighbor Tones series, trombonist Lauren Rudzinskas commissioned a short solo work, Chompin’ at the Leaves (inspired by her dog Sushi!). As the project requests, the premiere took place outside the concert hall—and Lauren chose her local park! In addition to the commissioned work, Lauren also premiered two other works, Nasty Hobbitsies Jig (originally written for double bass) and (Re)Adjusting—both of which were commissioned as part of the Commissions from Quarantine project. She was kind enough to also record the performances—I’ll be sharing those links at a future date!

Exciting News!

Speaking of brass…

Lauren is also a member of the fantastic brass quintet, Calypsus Brass, who just announced a major recording project of FIVE brand new works for brass quintet. Along with composers Shanyse Strickland, Katahj Copley, Zoe Cutler, and Marcus Grant, I will be contributing a work to the project.

All of the performers—Drs. Carrie Blosser, Jacquelyn Lankford, Jessica Pearce, Lauren, and Stephanie Ycaza—are fantastic musicians and super fun people to work with. I can’t wait to share more about our project in the coming weeks!

On the road again

Later this month I will be traveling to Iowa for a few days of music-making! I will first be visiting my alma mater, Luther College, for a day of lessons and a masterclass, before heading over to University of Northern Iowa for several days of rehearsals, presentations, and the performance of a newly-revamped version of The Noise (for wind ensemble with soprano and baritone vocal soloists). I can’t wait to head back to the Midwest for a few days, and look forward to sharing more about this trip soon!

New videos!

One of the new videos posted, from the premiere of Flicker by students from HSPVA.

After needing to move my YouTube channel to a new home, I am so excited to announce that many videos have been added in the last few weeks and the channel is almost up-to-date with all of the amazing performances I’ve enjoyed. You can check out videos from my channel directly, or check out one of the playlists I’ve made that link to performances of my work from other collaborators!

Check out more here—if you’re a fellow creator, give me a follow and I’ll be sure to return the favor!

Current Projects

I am earnestly finishing a new work for multi-percussion set-up inspired by market manipulation (I promise it’s more interesting than it sounds!). Commissioned by Aaron Ragsdale, the first movement is nearly finished in preparation for a performance at a conference later this spring! The work, Cult of Bulbs, was inspired by both the Phoebus Cartel (that diminished the life of lightbulbs to maximize profits in the 30’s) and Tulipmania (a financial bubble from the 1600’s that made tulips valuable enough to purchase land with)! I hope to share a full blog about this piece soon—I just have to finish actually writing it first!

After wrapping up work on that piece, I’ll be turning my full attention to new works I’ve been sketching out the last few months—one for clarinet and horn, and another for clarinet, horn, and bassoon; both commissioned by Natalie Groom of Whistling Hens! These are such fun and unique ensembles and I can’t wait to dive deeper on both of these works soon.

I also just had a virtual visit with flute students from Southwestern Oklahoma State University to discuss a new piece for flute choir that I’ll be writing next month—we had a fantastic time discussing some potential themes and ideas, as well as sharing what they love about playing their instruments.

I have more projects coming up that will keep me busy until the end of the summer, and I look forward to sharing more about them with you! If you want to keep up with what’s on my desk, what is about to be premiered, and what is just waiting to be added into The Library, check out the On the Workbench page.

More to Come!

Check back soon for more—in the meantime, I hope you enjoy this photo from a recent trip to see the cherry blossoms near my home in Portland. Have a great week, everyone!