Fire-Flowers

Autumn DEMO

Iris of Life

My Love

Lost

A Great Need

After Many Springs

On December 7th, 2015, Chelsea Smith decided she was done with depression. On a bench in the Bone Student Center, the education student wrote a spoken word poem detailing her struggles with mental illness and suicidal thoughts. She recorded herself performing the spoken word poem in her dorm room and posted it publically on Facebook. It quickly gained over 100 comments, 84 shares and over 5,000 views.
Chelsea’s poem caught the attention of Kristin Moroni, director of the Illinois State University Womens Choir. With Chelsea’s permission, Kristin sought out a composer to transform the poem into a piece for the ISU Women’s Choir to perform. Chelsea agreed, and, five months later, junior Music Composition and Music Education major Cristian Larios agreed to compose the music for the project.
The piece features a variety of haunting melodies and motives to represent the internal struggles that Chelsea faced. There are also many dissonances and less conventional resolutions to build a sense of anxiety throughout the piece. In addition to passages from Chelsea’s text, An Open Letter also features text from Proverbs 31:25:
	“She is clothed in strength and dignity and she laughs without fear of the future”
An Open Letter takes the listener through a journey of survival and ends with the phrase “I will live” to symbolize the vow Chelsea made to herself never to let suicide win.

An Open Letter to Suicide

https://issuu.com/cristianlarios/docs/summer_stars_-_full_score

Summer Stars

Cristian Larios (b. 1996) is a composer, conductor, vocalist, and educator from Joliet, IL. His works range from chamber music to larger choral works. Through his music, he hopes to empower the performers and provide the listener with a new perspective on the human experience.

His music has been performed by the Illinois State Madrigals, The No-Name Chorale, SWIC Chamber Singers, and has been featured at the REDNote New Music Festival. Larios has also collaborated with the School of Theatre and Dance and Kristin Schoenback on Ellen Mclaughin’s, Oedipus. Cristian enjoys the collaborative process and is always looking for new adventures and challenges.

In 2017, Larios was the recipient of the Harlan Peithman Music Scholarship for excellence in music theory and composition. Larios is currently a senior pursuing his Bachelors in Music Education-Choral and his Bachelors of Music in Theory/Composition from Illinois State University where he studied composition with Martha Horst, Roger Zare, Roy Magnuson, Joshua Keeling, and Carl Schimmel.

Current projects include Cause I Wanted You to Know for
percussion trio and a new commision for Christine Hansen and ctp trio for horn, tuba, and piano.

He is avid supporter of flannel, flowers, and the sparkle emoji.

Cristian Larios

Popular tracks