Completed July 29, 2024
Premiered December 4, 2024 by the Attacca Quartet

Dedicated to the Attacca Quartet, whose omnivorous enthusiasm for music was as infectious as it was inspiring

When preparing to write a new piece for the incredible Attacca Quartet, I had to reformulate my attitudes toward music. Where other ensembles would specialize, Attacca approached a stunningly wide repertoire with wit, joy, and open-mindedness. For them, there could be no music too high or too low, too silly or serious, too old or new. Instead, any music could serve as its own justification. 

Loosely inspired by William Blake’s parallel poetry collections ‘Songs of Innocence & Experience,’ this piece is structured in two halves that correspond roughly to the titular themes. Blake completed Songs of Experience six years after Songs of Innocence, and he originally intended the former to be exclusively centered on adulthood while the latter concentrated on youth. By the time he finished the collections, however, neither half was purely innocent nor experienced. The two contained poems of the same subject matter, the same titles, and in some cases, the same content - Blake actually moved some of the poems in 'Innocence' to 'Experience' upon completion, suggesting a complex relationship between the halves. 

I reflected on the soundworld I had developed over the six years or so since I started composing: a music of rushing motion, extended techniques, and mischievous self-awareness. This style stood in stark contrast to the first few pieces I had written: pop-like chord progressions, simple melodies, emotional transparency to the point of embarrassment. I decided I would set these old, ‘naive’ ideas in conversation with my current musical language. 

I hope that by juxtaposing and interweaving these musics that I can cast some doubt upon the linear narratives of growth we often feed ourselves. Sometimes, perhaps, one must double back to go forward.

Music of Innocence & Experience, for string quartet

Orquesta de Cámara de Valdivia
Rodolfo Fischer, director
Javier Reyers, viola solista

Umbral (2024) Concerto for viola and chamber orchestra

Brooklyn Toccata (2024)

Light Leak II. by light, by shadow (2025) by Camila Agosto

World premiere performed by The Rhythm Method at Fridman Gallery on March 1, 2025 in NYC. 

Light Leak II. by light, by shadow

Churn is a lullaby shaped by unease - a response to the disquiet of the present moment. Built from loops, its form reflects a process of repetition and accumulation, echoing the effects of sustained imbalance and harm. 

Churn was premiered on August 1, 2025 at Bang on a Can's LOUD Weekend:

Todd Reynolds: conductor
Lindsay McIntyre and Vanessa Croome, sopranos
Kyla-Rae Ashworth, flute and piccolo
Tucker Hall-Klingensmith, clarinet and bass clarinet
Ruben Høgh, piano
Aaron Edgcomb and Yun-Chen Chou, percussion
Chloe Lorraine Johnson and Michael Ferri, violin
Chris Gokelman, viola
Miriam Liske-Doorandish, cello

Churn

This piece is concerned with the subversion of discrete language to expose the innumerable phenomenology of phrase

-2025


released October 13, 2025
performed by Yarn/Wire as part of the Harvard Group for New Music's Fromm Concert Residency 2025.

recording by Jerry Macdonald
mixing by Jelani Surpris


GASOLINE LOVE F*CK STICK (2025) - Yarn/Wire

Galactic Playground | for Pierrot ensemble

music so low that it resonates within you.
music so loud that you can't help but listen.

music is a drug.
•
[electronic/fixed media component was added after the performance]

Performed and recorded by the American Modern Ensemble as part of the 2025 Mostly Modern Festival

Conductor: Rebekah Lambert
Bass Clarinet: Tasha Warren
Bassoon: Gina Cuffari
Percussion: Matt Ward
Harp: Joseph Rebman
Cello: Dave Eggar
Double Bass: Jeff Campbell

act ii

heads and thraws (wring it out) (2025)
for pianist, keyboardist, and two percussionists
Written for the 2025 Yarn/Wire Institute

Performed by Yarn/Wire
13 August 2025. Queens, NY, USA

Yarn/Wire:
Laura Barger, piano
Julia Den Boer, keyboard
Russell Greenberg and Dustin Donahue (percussion)

Programme note:
I like to think that the creative process is comprised of a convoluted collection of threads which call out, at some point, either to be untangled or tied together (knotted) for one purpose or another. In my recent works, the knot has become one of my go-to metaphor for the act of “fixing” (i.e. fastening) musical ideas using notation. This current work is made of up two movements which exist as two unique “knots”. Their respective ternary musical structures mirror one another, and serve as a “preview” of two possible approaches to dealing with the limited set of sound objects which I’d established during the process of sketching. The first movement (“first knot”) is written in the manner of the opening of a larger work. The second (“second knot”) as a bite-size encapsulation of a larger, imagined work.

— Njabulo Phungula

https://www.njabulophungula.com/heads-and-thraws-wring-it-out

I. first knot

II. second knot

odes to the body unsung (2025) for 13 players

I've been thinking a lot recently about music and the body. We react to sound in every single part in our anatomy, from our limbic system to our respiration to our motor system. But when we talk about how our bodies respond to music, we tend to focus on only certain parts – we feel it in our guts, it pulls at our heartstrings, it makes us tap our feet – and ignore others. In this piece, I imagine the music which resonates and activates the “unsung” parts of the body. What would music for the gallbladder, for the eyelashes sound like? Here, I take inspiration from the wonderful poet Sharon Olds, whose odes praise parts of the body that aren’t typical poetic subjects. 
 
“ode to the ligaments of the ankle” is a jagged, raucous folk dance, and “ode to the gallbladder” is a lullaby in warm, pulsing microtonal harmony. “ode to the vertebrae of the spine” reimagines the keyboard percussion instruments as the backbone of a skeleton, and “ode to the eyelashes” unfurls in fluttering wisps. The piece is rendered in a shimmering, dreamlike microtonal language. I invite you to not just listen to this piece, but to feel it resonate in your whole body.

odes to the body unsung was commissioned by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition. It was premiered by the Grossman Ensemble, conducted by Timothy Weiss. 

Performed May 2025 by the Grossman Ensemble conducted by Timothy Weiss
Recorded by Chris Willis

odes to the body unsung is scored for sinfonietta - 1(+picc, alto fl.)1(+e.h.)10.alto sax.1000.2perc.pno.hp.11110


Music of Innocence & Experience, for string quartet

Bobby Ge