commissioned & premiered by the JACK Quartet during TIME:SPANS 2021

note| mayu: the great river is inspired by Andean (South American Indigenous) cosmology & iconography through the lens of queerness, diaspora, and separation. The score works as an ecosystem for connecting living constellations, musical materials, and the individual/collective experience of time. The piece is a reflection on the multiple temporalities experienced and harnessed by displaced, erased, and structurally excluded peoples. These layers of time, the material and immaterial, are sources of joy | resilience | survival, and perhaps, future.

mayu: the great river [2021] | JACK Quartet

Nimrod from Elgar's Enigma Variations (arr. for Violin & Piano)

this is a different earth, one where your nightmares live, or are they your regrets?

https://twitter.com/areyoufriendlyy/status/942364191007977472

resplendent fracture

note| Primavera crown is an encounter between conflicting ethics of my work — the role of individual imagination and expressive possibility against the large canvas of chamber orchestra. The work brings into conversation aesthetic materials across different contemporary classical practices and places them within a liberatory framework, drawn from the socioeconomic realities of racialized spaces. Do these materials have the capacity to grow beyond their dominant origins?

The result opens a space for confrontation: on the one hand, its expressive sonic spaces and trajectories profoundly engage my imagination; on the other I struggle, from a philosophical perspective, with the mechanisms and aesthetics I’m invoking and their connotations. 

_______

premiered by Alarm Will Sound on July 27th, 2019 @ The Missouri Theatre during the Mizzou International Composer's Festival

flower by Ella Joklik

20190727B - 8 World Premieres

Primavera crown [2019] | Alarm Will Sound

Draw Squares, Dream Spheres, for chamber winds, brass, strings, and percussion
Composed for the New York Youth Symphony Composition Program, Symphony Space NYC, 2015

Draw Squares Dream Spheres

Caged

Old Chatterbox

Produced by Kill Scott-Herron
Guitars and Mix by Joe Mike Markz
Art by Ngu Asongwed

ACAB [Kill Scott-Herron ft. Eastern Foreigner and Joe Mike Markz

A LOT (prod. by Westend)

Eccentric composer and performer ædan (b. 1993) (BMI) writes music that has been described as “quirky,” “whimsical,” “other-worldly,” and “honest.” A lover of all music, ædan (they/she) is influenced by classical, rock, folk, indie, new age, world, jazz, and trance music. Their unique interpretations make them a sought-after composer, songwriter, and collaborator. They are a keyboardist, harpist, vocalist, and songwriter of their original music and perform throughout the tri-state area. They have studied under great composers and performers such as Duo Scorpio’s Kathryn Andrews, Columbia University’s David Fulmer, Manhattan School of Music’s Mark Pakman, and Dr. Kyle Blaha and Tim Muathe of The Juilliard School. From 2013-2015, Ædan participated in the New York Youth Symphony Composition Program, and has been invited to numerous composition festivals and conferences. In 2016, they were commissioned by Morris Arts for the original score of The Gateway Totem Project, and two pieces throughout 2017-2018 by the Young Artist’s Harp Seminar in Ohio and Georgia. In 2019, Ædan was honored with a grant from American Harp Society, Inc. to write for NJ-based harpist Merynda Adams. They have their Bachelor of Music in Theory & Composition from the John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University and a member of the New York Songwriters Circle and American Harp Society. Their most recent projects include an original EP set to release in Spring 2020 with Boston-based producer Mike Davidson of Plaid Dog Recordings and a contemporary ballet in collaboration with New York City-based multimedia artist Nicholas Kiray. They have played alongside great acts such as prog-metal band Gates to the Morning, as well as Brooklyn-based psychedelic indie band, Spooky Wilson, and they currently play in a project with The Hums' Tam Geller, Mel Glovin, and Paris Maloupis. They have collaborated with countless amazing musicians and artists throughout the country and strive to unify relatable, thoughtful, accessible music through composition, performance and education. They currently reside in north New Jersey.

Old Chatterbox

ædan

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