**please listen with speakers or headphones capable of picking up very low frequencies**

follow this link to view the video version: https://youtu.be/GRpAjF6lJyo

for string quartet, live electronics, and optional video projection, performed by members of the university of washington modern music ensemble:
Constance Aguocha - vln I
Christine Chu - vln II
Madeline Warner - vla
Kevin Lieferman - clo

program note:
philosopher and ecologist Timothy Morton refers to climate change as a hyperobject, “a conceptual fact so large and complex that, like the internet, it can never be properly comprehended.”* much of the complexity surrounding the idea of climate change is due to the incomprehensibility of the extent of an intricate and seemingly infinitely connected web of biofeedback loops, such as forest dieback and the albedo effect, which are accelerating the already staggering rate of climate change. these loops create a snowball effect, a cascade of impact escaping our control. c a s c a d e s is informed by these feedback loops and attempts to bring the intimately impactful, yet seemingly distant, effects of these feedback loops to the forefront of our perception. throughout the piece, electronics distort the listeners perception of cause and effect, what is real and what is artificial, what is impacting and what is being impacted.

c a s c a d e s

commissioned & premiered by Loadbang

Trumpet: Andy Kozar
Trombone: William Lang
Bass Clarinet: Adrián Sandí 
Baritone Voice: Jeffrey  Gavett 
Date: October 1, 2021
Venue: Opera America (NYC)
Event: loadbang Presents: Premieres Vol. 17
Audio and Video by Stuart Breczinski

video: https://youtu.be/cfU1rI2Ge9w

ghosts & monsters

for solo cello, performed by Urban Megušar

bluet (i): aporia (2021)

for chamber ensemble, electronics, and lighting

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this piece is inspired by the devastating beauty of nacreous clouds. these clouds are both very rare and hauntingly beautiful, with luminous pastel colors streaking across the sky. 

despite their beauty, these clouds are irrevocably harmful to the atmosphere. while their beauty comes from the diffraction of light as it passes through tiny ice crystals in the air, their appearance acts as a catalyst for the reactions of toxic chemicals that deplete the ozone layer and contribute to the ozone hole in the antarctic. 

this piece is a meditation on the beauty and destruction of the world we’re making. 

+++

premiered by collective lovemusic at Paine Hall at Harvard University April 28, 2023

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performed by collective lovemusic:
Emiliano Gavito - bass flute
Adam Starkie - bass clarinet
Emily Yabe - viola
Christian Lozano - e-guitar

volatile horizon

Originally inspired by oleanders, the first flowers to bloom in Hiroshima after the bomb, "flowers which bloom from blackened earth and poisoned air" is a piece reflecting on environmental destruction, resilience, and hope through duration, slow transformation, and timbral complexity. The piece unfolds in four stages which create affective sonic environments, each containing an enmeshment of one another. 

resonant earth | blackened earth | poisoned air | flowers blooming

written for Broken Frames Syndicate

premiere date: february 2, 2024 at Harvard University’s Paine Hall, Cambridge MA

flowers which bloom from blackened earth and poisoned air

premiered by line upon line at Harvard University's Paine Hall, Cambridge MA february 28, 2023

something buried in the earth

premiered by Ben Roidl-Ward on October 15 at Harvard University's Paine Concert Hall, Cambridge MA

rift-haze

live recording (please use good headphones with the capacity for low frequencies)

for ensemble and electronics, composed in 2023 for the annual .abeceda ensemble contemporary music festival.

program note:
Throughout human history, wolves have taken many significations: hunter, mother, protector, predator, seer, villain, beast. In much of western society today, wolves are figured as the image of wildness and man’s quest to conquer said wildness, to tame the wolf. The piece WOLF explores the opposing elements of our vision of the animal - and of ourselves: the primal drive for self preservation alongside the tenderness of being animal. 

with many thanks to my dear friends and collaborators:
Urška Rihtaršič, harp
Oskar Longyka, violin
Domen Kuznar, viola
Urban Megušar, cello
Tilen Lebar, alto sax
Tilen Draksler, conductor

WOLF

“The year is fading. Light is fading. Solstice means sun-stilled. It’s a wild sort of stilling, a thrashing, frenzied sort of stilling, a de-metering, a holding of the breath as the tension builds, as the darkness expands, until it cracks and the light drives in. That’s the hope.”
 - Nina MacLaughlin

written for my friends in zone expérimentale

sun-stilled

that i may time transcend,
that a universe my heart may unfold.

my arms and legs rot off and through my blood 
rushed forth;

i am not me. 
i cannot become 
myself

~a series of titles to Takeshi Murakami works, as a poem

premiered 4 november 2024 in paine hall, harvard university

performed by duo XAMP: fanny vicens & jean-ettienne sotty
recorded by jerry macdonald

that we may time transcend

for low string trio and resonating snare and bass drums

(my grief is a compass)

we searched for a new world as the sky fell down around us.

even then, we admitted it was beautiful.

(i search for love in every world and i find it every time)

premiere:
april 24, 2025 by catinblack ensemble (Javad Javadzade, contrabass; Ema Grćman, cello; Sofia von Atzingen, viola) at harvard university’s paine hall

eroding sky; a new and brighter star

A body of many bodies; a creature which--

[moans screeches sputters growls squeals howls]

--struggles to understand itself. 

This piece traces the mythic figure of the chimera as a body and a process becoming-with, a site of multiplicity and discovery; a body learning and relearning and unlearning its many selves.

premiered by .abeceda ensemble june 23, 2025 at the .abeceda contemporary music festival IV in bled, slovenia

for flute/alto flute, tenor sax, viola, accordion, prepared piano, prepared harp, & percussion

CHIMERA

premiered by Fabrik Quartet at Festival Mixtur 2025

tooth & nail

contaminant

I wish I could tell you but when I try it burns my throat--
I wish I could tell you--
I wish I could--
I wish I--

haunted ground; tendrils burn like fuchsia

**headphones highly recommended**

This past summer I spent three weeks at Banff Centre for the Arts, attending the Evolution of the String Quartet program there. During this time, I was incredibly fortunate to work with Elixir Baroque String Quartet and write a piece for them to be premiered on July 27, 2018. 

Valerie Gordon, violin
Michelle Odorico, violin
Matt Antal, viola
Julia Biber, cello

String Quartet

*(for four soprano saxophones)*

Written for and premiered by ~Nois saxophone quartet at Constellation, Chicago Sep 23, 2018.

even the words that we are speaking now

composer sometimes, weirdo always

phd harvard university
director of harvard group for new music

darcy copeland

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