Name: as stars scrape the universe (for "pierrot plus" ensemble) by Connor Elias Way
Duration: 6 min 28 s
Description: Premiered at the Norfolk New Music Workshop on June 30th, 2017. Dedicated to the memory of Kevin Scheidt.

Nicely done, Connor! I love the microscopic activity within the basically static texture!

Performance by Julius Akira Mauldin and The Westside Chamber Players in the Church of the Holy Apostles, New York, NY.


Program Notes:

Back in 2020, after I finished my first commission from the Albany Symphony, they sent me a wonderful book of collected poems. One of the poems included in this book, Of Rain and Air by Wayne Dodd, immediately resonated with me with its beautiful, evocative imagery and its striking relevance to both the sounds I was exploring in my new piece for Albany Symphony and what I was experiencing at the time. My piece is not a musical setting of the poem, but I feel it shares much of the same feeling as that of the text, as if they were part of the same world.


Wayne Dodd - Of Rain and Air
from Sometimes Music Rises

All day I have been closed up
inside rooms, speaking of trivial
matters. Now at last I have come out
into the night, myself a center

of darkness.
Beneath the clouds the low sky glows
with scattered lights. I can hardly think
this is happening. Here in this bright absence

of day, I feel myself opening out
with contentment.
All around me the soft rain is whispering
of thousands of feet of air

invisible above us.

Of Rain and Air (2021, rev. 2023) for chamber orchestra

Commissioned by Americas Society

Performers: Charlotte Mundy, Soprano
Yoshi Weinberg, flutes
Madison Greenstone, clarinets
Russell Greenberg, percussions
Kathryn Sloat, harp
Alec Goldfarb, electric guitar
Pala Garcia, violin
Thea Mesirow, cello
Tristan Kasten Krause, double bass
Yanqi Chen, electronics
Sebastian Zubieta, conductor

Mixing and Mastering by Murat Çolak at GERYON Label.

Mors Osculi (Live performance)

Amanecer (2024) is written for chamber orchestra. 

Performed by Talea Ensemble with conductor David Fulmer.
Audio Editing by Camilo Pentzke

Amanecer

Commissioned by the Brooklyn Art Song Society
Dominik Belavy, baritone
Nathaniel LaNasa, piano

Three Yeats Songs (2016 - 2023)

Youtube video of the performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUf5Ca6_wk0

commissioned by Ensemble Proton Bern as a part of Protonwerk No. 13

live recording of premiere 23. April 2024 - Dampfzentrale Bern

Ensemble Proton Bern 

Conductor- Gregory Charette
Alto flute, piccolo - Bettina Berger 
Oboe - Martin Bliggenstorfer 
Basset horn, contrabass clarinet - Richard Elliot Haynes
Bassoon, Contrabassoon - Elise Jacoberger 
Harp - Vera Schnider 
Piano - Coco Schwarz
Violin - Maximilian Haft 
Cello - Jan-Filip Ťupa

Recording and mixing - Joël Cormier

Program note: 
“Stained light” is a part of an ongoing attempt in my work to uncover sensations and emotions from my own childhood. It can be both nostalgic and dark, as I try to remember how sensitive I felt to everything as a child – to the weather, to the energy of people around me, to the sounds of the world. In the piece, I try to create fragile spaces in which small details can affect the whole system, uncovering layers of sweetness or of darkness. There is something always under the surface, like a hidden song, half-remembered, heard from a distance.

Stained light | for ensemble proton bern (2023-24)

Katie Liu, viola
2024 Primrose International Viola Competition
Los Angeles, CA, USA

𝘛𝘶𝘮

PASSACAGLIA – MUSIC FOR ORCHESTRA IX (2024)

released on Wet Ink Ensemble "Action, Choice, Thought" 
May 2025 on Carrier Records
https://wetinkensemble.bandcamp.com/album/action-choice-thought 

The piece moves fluidly between fixed and open material, fully notated music and music co-created by the members of the ensemble through improvisation.


Wet Ink Ensemble
Erin Lesser - flutes
Alex Mincek - tenor saxophone
Kate Soper - voice
Eric Wubbels - piano
Ian Antonio - percussion
Josh Modney - violin
Mariel Roberts Musa - cello
Sam Pluta - electronics

Action, Choice, Thought [2025]

https://joshuamastel.com/Blur/
Performed by the New Fromm Players at Tanglewood Music Center August 18, 2025.
Sheena Lan, violin
James Gikas, violin
Audrey Wang, viola
Han Lee, cello

Blur | for string quartet (2025)

Premiered at the Norfolk New Music Workshop on June 30th, 2017. Dedicated to the memory of Kevin Scheidt.

as stars scrape the universe (for "pierrot plus" ensemble)

Connor Elias Way

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