Cathedral of Light (for string quartet)
(Duration 5 mins)
Commissioned by the Hartt School for the Uncertainty of Fate Festival, Cathedral of Light draws upon imagery of looking for light in dark places, using a simple melody elaborated, orchestrated and constantly reinvented through varying shades of color.
An Imaginary Thing (for violin and piano)
(Duration – 17 mins; The last movement One Brief Hour may be performed as a stand-alone piece of 6:30 mins.)
An Imaginary Thing is a three movement work inspired by Walt Whitman’s One Hour to Madness and Joy. This piece tries to capture the frenetic, angular, reckless nature of the text, as well as its underlying lyrical side. The relationship between piano and violin changes over the course of the work from a combined furious clash of notes to intertwining layers, to a single lyrical entity, reflecting the characters present in the text.
Wings (Trio for violin, cello and piano)
(Duration – 19 mins; The last movement may be performed as a stand-alone excerpt at 8 mins long.)
Wings is a trio for violin, cello and piano in three movements, built around the image of a solitary bird flying through a rain-filled sky. The first movement reflects the twisting, fluid nature of flight, with sweeping gestures and rhapsodic lines. The second movement imitates the sounds of rain – drops and sudden flurries grow into a defined, rhythmic sound which contrasts the outer sections. The final movement is built around wind – dramatic gusts expanding from unisons in all the instruments over an unsettled and shifting pulse.
The Lost Country of Sight (for soprano, cello, piano, and percussion); on text by Neil Aitken
Whip the Devil Round the Stump (for violin and piano)
(Duration – 5 mins.)
“To whip the devil round the stump, verb. phr. (American). -To enjoy the sweets of wickedness and yet escape the penalty.