Hey yo, hey yo, what’s up yo

Performed by the BMI Jazz Composers Orchestra at the 2025 Summer Showcase concert, June 20, 2025 at Symphony Space, New York City. 

Soloists:
Steve Kenyon, alto
Sebastian Noelle, guitar

Dust Storm

Performed by James Sullivan and commissioned by the Robert Black Foundation and New Music on the Point for their 2020 commissioning project.

Scree Scramble

"The Full Hundred" is an audio documentary that chronicles the inspiring stories of Americans who have researched, fought for, and lived through pay and funding inequity in the United States. I was first inspired to write this piece in 2022 when, as an untenured Professor at the University of Colorado, I received notice from my university that I would be receiving a raise thanks to the Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act. Curious what this meant and why I was receiving it, I dove into research mode. I quickly learned that my university had determined that I was being underpaid compared to my male colleagues of similar experience and expertise, and that, in accordance with the new Colorado Equal Pay Act, my compensation would be increased moving forward to adjust for the pay discrimination I had experienced. Following this news from the Equal Pay Act, University of Colorado colleague and Engineering Professor Shelley Miller sued the University of Colorado for owed backpay and reached a settlement that provided backpay for over 400 underpaid women faculty members at our university. It is an incredible story of justice and morality that impacted me immensely, and I was determined to explore it further—along with the broader issue of funding and pay inequity in our country. 

In composing the piece, I conducted interviews with four people involved in this fight. They are: 

Jessie Danielson, Colorado State Senator and Author of the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act 
Terra McKinnish, University of Colorado Economics Professor and Labor Economist 
Kris Livingston, University of Colorado Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director 
Michael Uy, University of Colorado Music Professor and Researcher in Arts Funding 

Using audio clips from these interviews, I wove these stories together into a sonic fabric of storytelling which you will hear as an electronics track played in the hall during the performance. Within this story, the wind ensemble acts as a live film score to the voices of these interviews. In conducting the interviews, I came to realize just how complex and multifaceted the fight for equal pay is in this country. Pay inequity results from a multitude of factors, including discrimination, bias, personal choices, childcare, gender expectations, and access to education, resources, and opportunities. 

The title for the piece comes from the statistic that, compared to white men, white women make 77¢ on the dollar, Black women make 61¢, Latina women 58¢, and Native American women 53¢. Equal pay will not be achieved until every demographic of our society makes the full 100¢ on the dollar—until everyone has equal access to funding, resources, and education. 

Huge thank yous go out to Senator Danielson, Dr. McKinnish, Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director Kris Livingston, and Dr. Uy for generously sharing their time, stories, and work with me. I would also be remiss if I didn’t extend my deepest gratitude to Dr. Matt Dockendorf for his invaluable work in organizing this consortium and bringing this piece to life with his students. - Annika Socolofsky, January 2025

Composed by Annika Socolofsky
Performed by the University of Colorado Wind Symphony & Matt Dockendorf
Recorded by Kevin Harbison (wind ensemble) and Annika Socolofsky (interviews)
Mixed by Jonathan Galle
Commissioned by Matt Dockendorf & The University of Colorado Bands and a National Consortium

The Full Hundred (2025) // University of Colorado Wind Symphony

All Horizons

Claude Vivier : Hymnen an die Nacht (1974)
Texte : Novalis/Vivier
Orchestration : Alexandre Jamar

Soprano : Clara Penalva
Orchestre des Lauréats du Conservatoire
Direction : Flavien Boy

📷 : Anselm Kiefer

Claude Vivier : Hymnen an die Nacht (orch. Alexandre Jamar)

something deeply hidden (2020) for orchestra

Recording: Oberlin Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Raphael Jimenez

something deeply hidden was commissioned by and written for Thomas Heuser and the San Juan Symphony with the support of The Durango Herald Newspaper to honor Ludwig van Beethoven’s 250th Birthday. The title comes from a quote in Albert Einstein’s Autobiographical Notes: “…Something deeply hidden had to be behind things.” Music is a brief glimpse into our shared humanity, with all of its breathless beauty, all of its intense joy and deep sorrow, and all of its ugliness and violence too. In Beethoven’s work we get a glimpse of someone who felt especially deeply—a glimpse into a person whose passion and urgency and hope for what was possible in the world seemed to pour out of him like an endless fountain. One of my own first formative experiences with Classical music began with Beethoven, stumbling on to a dusty recording of his Fifth Symphony pulled from the discount bin of an electronics superstore that opened up a world of musical possibilities for me. In Beethoven’s Third Symphony, Eroica, the heroic opening often gives way to music of heartrending melancholy, most notably in the funeral march of the second movement, revealing a darker meaning beneath the bright surface. I see Albert Einstein’s pursuits in physics as related to Beethoven’s—a continual searching for something deeply hidden. For me, this piece is a parallel universe to Eroica—a musing that starts with some of the same musical material but takes it in a very different direction. The darker material of the funeral march opens the piece and is stretched and pulled, gradually revealing an even darker core that eventually churns and spins into light.

More information: https://davidbiedenbender.com/work/something-deeply-hidden/

something deeply hidden

feat. Hilary Abigana, flute; C. Neil Parsons, trombone / theatrical design;  Greg Jukes, percussion; David Russell, cello; Sakurako Kanemitsu, piano; Rose Hegele, dance. 

April 10, 2025; Boston Conservatory ("Symbiosis")

This piece is not necessarily “about” fireflies, but it can be if you want. The title aims to evoke the gentle qualities of nighttime, stillness, luminescence, and certain rhythmic qualities. It is really a piece about the simple beauty of repetition, the colors of the different instrumental tones, and resonance. It’s about taking one’s time. 

Originally written for two violins and premiered by Sharan Leventhal and Clara Mazo as simply fireflies, this arrangement created specifically for Symbiosis brings together all the performers of the concert. The work has also been arranged for solo piano.

https://www.ryansuleiman.com/fireflies-gather
https://www.ryansuleiman.com/symbiosis

fireflies gather (2025)

Performed by Ensemble PART at Shepherd King Lutheran Church in San Antonio, Texas, 8/14/25

Evelin Degen — flutes
Matthias Geuting — organ
Peter Eisold — drums
Carter WIlliams — viola d'amore
Jennie Boultbee and Mateusz Bogdanowicz — dance

WAVE

Baldwin Giang

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