As composer in residence for SONAR during the 2008-2009 season, the director, Colin Sorgi, asked me to write a piece that fit the theme "Mozart Modern" for one of his upcoming programs. This work is based on the Magic Flute Overture, breaking down the themes and motives from that overture as well as the famous Queen of the Night aria, "Der Hölle Rache," and spinning them out of control. I imitate the structure of the overture by writing a fugue, and towards the end of the piece, I quote small but recognizable parts of the overture almost verbatim. This work was premiered on March 10, 2009 by the SONAR New Music Ensemble, Tong Chen conducting. Watch the video below or listen to the audio.
I was commissioned in the summer of 2007 by Jeffrey Bishop, a well-known music pedagogue and high school orchestra director, to write a five-minute piece for his high school string orchestra at Shawnee Mission Northwest. The name came significantly after I had finished the piece, translating to “Sea of Tranquility,” the famous area on the moon where Apollo 11 landed. The music captures a dichotomy of emotions – tranquil beauty and restless isolation. Mare Tranquillitatis was premiered on February 12, 2008.
Listen to the recording of the Premiere, with Jeffrey Bishop conducting the Shawnee Mission Northwest High School Orchestra:
I wrote this piece over a weekend for Ken Bowermeister and the advanced string group at the FWCS Summer at the Symphony program during the summer of 2002, the title playing on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer-night’s Dream. Less than a week later, we premiered it on July 19, 2002. After a few revisions, A Midsummer’s Daydream received its second performance by the Pine View Chamber Symphony on October 10, 2002.
This work is a wistful fantasy, beginning with a lilting D minor barcarolle in 6/8, with occasional hints of a 3/4 hemiola that energizes the rhythmic drive. The middle portion is in D major with a broader triple meter, and fragments of a new soaring melody are passed between sections. A return of the opening material builds until the closing bars, where the two main themes are combined for a triumphant close.
A Midsummer's Daydream won the 2009Merle J. Isaac Competition, senior level. It is currently published by Roger Zare Music. Contact me if you are interested in purchasing it.
Listen to an computer synthesized recording:
I finished the opening movement of this symphony during the summer of 2003, in between high school and college. Since then, I have started working on other movements, but I do not think I will use them unless I receive a commission to finish the symphony. So for the time being, it is a complete work in one movement.
The string writing is somewhat virtuosic and the quick parts of the music are packed with meter changes. There are sweeping melodies and rich harmonies in the slower sections.
Listen to a computer synthesized recording:
Written between the summer of 2001 and spring of 2002. Mahler’s 6th Symphony inspired this composition significantly.
Listen to recording of the third movement, Adagio, recorded by the SONAR ensemble at Peabody Conservatory. This movement can stand on its own, with its haunting melodies and lush harmonies.
This is my first large-scale work. I wrote this between 2000 and the spring of 2001, and the music is influenced most by Brahms and Beethoven. The scherzo, which can stand alone, is a cute four-minute movement, premiered by the Pine View Chamber Symphony on May 25, 2001 and subsequently performed on a Florida West Coast Symphony family concert by the FWCS Chamber Orchestra in the spring of 2003. Listen to the family concert recording, conducted by Kenneth Bowermeister:
