"Starry Night" (March 2011) is written for string quintet (string quartet + bass). It was premiered by the Sybarite5. "Starry Night" depicts that moment when you look up at the stars and find closeness with loved ones despite being apart.

The first time I wrote this piece, it was a song, and that distance was the separation between me and my family during the first years of college. The second time I wrote this piece was during the second collaboration with the wonderful Sybarite5 ensemble. My cousin had recently passed away and a new section appeared in the middle, almost like the bridge in a song, that I knew was just about this. It fit somehow though, because when I look up at the stars, it has that same effect of bringing me closer, even when the distance is absolute.

Starry Night

Le Petit Prince: IV. How To Tame A Fox

Le Petit Prince: III. The Rose Garden

This is an orchestral piece developed from my chamber piece, From Time to Eternity. Performed by my laptop and an audio collage of extended techniques!

For score and program notes, visit: http://susannacomposes.com/from-time-to-eternity

From Time To Eternity Midi Recording + Audio Collage

A young sailor wishes nothing more than to work on the sea forever, but is derailed from that destiny by her forced betrothal to a captain. She escapes this fate through the discovery of a latent power, sailing away from her home into an uncertain future of her own making.

Libretto: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1OB8fFj6Ofsk_va7NYKENo7YbxPKeGktd

Featuring:
Maria Dossin - conductor
Christine Jenora Duncan - contralto
Trevor Cook - baritone
Jessica Rossi - soprano
Ashleigh Sizemore - soprano

Captain: Act I Scene 2

Captain: Act I Scene 1

Performed on May 5th, 2018 by the Composer of Oregon Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Brian McWhorter, this short orchestral fantasy explores the theme of relinquishing unwanted memories.

The Forgetting Tree

This piece was inspired by the beauty, both manmade and natural, of Heceta Head, a coastal shore replete with mysterious caves, buttery frothing waves, and what appears to be giant glowing gem within the lighthouse. Each movement portrays the coast at a different time of day: sunbeams stretching out over the sea as the sun rises; tidepools teaming with tiny strange critters trying to escape the noonday heat; and how a strange, rotating crystal within a looming tower catches the moonlight at nightfall.

Movements:
I. Dawn at Sea
II. Noonday Tidepools
III. Midnight at the Lighthouse

Score: (http://www.susannacomposes.com/#/coastal-suite-for-solo-tuba/)

Coastal Suite For Tuba Solo (midi)

Voyages was written for the Archaea Tree Ensemble - Erin Brooker (harp), Jenni Shanahan (flute) and Andy Miller (percussion). They premiered the work at AZULE in Hot Springs, NC for their Troublesome Gap Festival 2015 on May 24, 2015.

Voyages Excerpts

Performed by soprano Estelí Gomez, accompanied by John King on piano and Luke Smith on crotales.

The piece sets the opening of T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, “Burnt Norton” (1936), exploring the rarified and time-twisted world Eliot creates through the story of a rose garden haunted by absences. In Eliot’s poem, you, the reader, explore a secret rose garden where you may walk passages of time not taken. The garden is haunted by absences: unheard birdcalls, untrod leaves, and gradually you realize that garden is filled with unseen guests too, echoes of yourself visible only in the reflected sunlight. You catch a momentary glimpse, and a bird implores you to leave, saying, “Humankind cannot bear very much reality.”

Esteli Gomez Residency 2018

Burnt Norton

“Didi Mtebi”, (“დიდი მთები” in Georgian, “The Great Mountains” in English) is a song for three voices  in the style of Georgian vocal polyphony. I composed it at the end of my time teaching and studying in the Republic of Georgia on a Fulbright.

This performance was at the Ova Novi's "Where I've been, Not what I am" concert on April 29th, 2017.

Didi Mtebi At UO

Listen to the recording here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL090enG-DctZ2jcVsxd0AGPWbZgRrtmMr

In the moonlight, another world is illuminated, one that exists beside our own, one enchanted by silvery tones and shadows. Delicately though, for this world can flicker out of existence on the whim of a passing cloud.

Moonlight transcribes my experience living in a world where my non-binary gender is erased, elided, and forgotten. But it still remains to me a source of resistance and resilience, as if it were a forest within my innermost self to which I can return and be restored.

Composed in the summer of 2019, this piece was commissioned by Anthony Aguayo for the Chyornii e Dorado premier recording project. Keep an eye out for their album in November 2019! 

The image is part of George Inness' painting "Moonlight" (1885).

Moonlight, for clarinet and piano (MIDI here, recording linked)

Cerulean S. Payne-Passmore (they/them) is a composer and electronic musician from Philadelphia, PA currently pursuing doctoral studies in music composition as a Benjamin Franklin Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, studying with Tyshawn Sorey. Their compositional practice focuses on collaborative improvisation, augmenting acoustic sound with electronics, and making what seems strange sound beautiful. In their music, Cerulean experiments with harmony to find new patterns from familiar sounds, integrating intuitive expansion of traditional tonality with new harmonic constructs. Their work often returns to themes of climate change and gender expression. Recently, they have collaborated to create new works with bassoonist Dana Jessen, Yarn/Wire, the TAK Ensemble. 
Currently, they are composing a string quartet on the experience of living through the climate crisis, an electroacoustic piece for voice and feedback inspired by Octavia Bulter’s writings, and a piece for electro-acoustic chamber ensemble that confronts the darkness lurking within the creative psyche. 

In their spare time, Cerulean enjoys reading speculative fiction, exploring new places, and hanging out with their foster cat(s).

Cerulean S. Payne-Passmore

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