for wind band
performed by the Brooklyn Wind Symphony, Jeff Ball, conductor

Moth (Brooklyn Wind Symphony)

"white wide eyes" (2014) for 23 musicians (4 ensembles), electronics, projection
- Ensemblekollektiv Berlin (Ensemble Mosaik, Sonar Quartet, Ensemble Adapter, Ensemble Apparat)
- Manuel Nawri (conductor)
premiere January 22nd 2015, Festival Ultraschall Berlin, HAU2

live recording: dradio

"white wide eyes" 2014 - for 23 musicians, electronics, projection

Double Black Diamond (2005, rev. 2007) for chamber orchestra or ensemble
instrumentation:  1*11*1/1111/2pc,pn,synth/strings (single or multiple)
duration: 11 minutes
premieres: 
Utah Arts Festival Chamber Orchestra, Andrew Rindfleisch, June 23, 2005
revised version:
Indiana University New Music Ensemble, David Dzubay, March 8, 2007
This recording is the IU New Music Ensemble, David Dzubay conductor

Double Black Diamond for ensemble

In 1982, an earthen dam at Lawn Lake in Colorado started to lose its hold on the mass of water behind it. Soon a small hole became a rushing flood barreling down the side of the mountain, carrying trees and rocks from their home to a new resting place at the base of the valley. Today, you can still see the remnants of that flood as an alluvial fan of white silt that has been spread at the base of the river. 

Composed as part of the Rocky Mountain National Park Artist-in-Residence Program, Alluvial Reverberations uses recordings from within the river and within the ground at the Alluvial Fan and other waterfalls in the park, mixed with field recordings of the surrounding area to create tableaus that explore the lasting impact of human actions on the current soundscape of the park.

Alluvial Reverberations (2025)

Viral Strains

Discords (2018) for 3D audio, guitar amp, and small computer speakers.

*This is a binaural rendering and should be listened to with headphones*

Written in the Ambisonic spatial audio format, Discords is intended for playback over a multi-channel speaker array (ideally 16 channels). In performance, the opening 0-1:06 is played through a guitar amp (stage right) and the ending 9:00-39 is played through small computer speakers (stage left). Sound is briefly sent to the guitar amp again from 4:25 to 5:15.

Discords (2018) for 3D audio - binaural mix

I’ve been doing a lot of research recently on ink wash painting. I think the most immediate thing that stood out to me is that, on some base level, this medium can be seen as a study of diffusion and envelope. There is an attack, sustain, decay, and release in each stroke. As ink is pulled, it loses density. In a way, this makes the final product a documented temporal experience. Careful articulations of color within a field of negative space create an organic blend and transition of static and kinetic energy with the existing surface and the deliberate additions to it. Once painted, it cannot be changed or erased. This makes the medium physically and mentally demanding process as well.

Technicalities aside, there are evocative implications within the philosophy of the technique. Although I have been unable to find a single and specific source for the theory, an explanation found on Wikipedia truly resonated with me and my compositional approach. Stating; The goal of ink and wash painting is not simply to reproduce the appearance of the subject, but to capture its spirit. To paint a horse, the ink wash painting artist must understand its temperament better than its muscles and bones. To paint a flower, there is no need to perfectly match its petals and colors, but it is essential to convey its liveliness and fragrance. East Asian ink wash painting may be regarded as a form of expressionistic art that captures the unseen. In landscape painting, the scenes depicted are typically imaginary, or very loose adaptations of actual views, from which the artist may have been very distant.”

Lighter Shades, to me, plays out as a distant and happy tapestry of idealized memories: a Personal mythology of an imaginary landscape. Perhaps I was never there; I don’t remember anything anyone said or exactly what I saw, but I remember what it felt like. I hate to use the term “abstract expressionism” (or abstract impressionism), but nothing is concrete and yet there is still something to smile about. A clouded feeling of warmth and comfort. Foggy, but certainly not dark.

Garrison Gerard - Conductor
Alaina Clarice - Flute
Morgan Horning - Soprano
Ted Powell - Piano
Mia Detwiler - Violin
Michael Moore - Viola
Kourtney Newton - Cello

Lighter Shades

“小白菜” (“Little Cabbage”) is a Chinese folk song originating from the Heibei province near Beijing. The song is from the perspective of a young girl whose mother has died and whose father has remarried a woman with a son. The girl is given less food, shabbier clothes, and less attention than her brother, and she cries for her dead mother in anguish. My interpretation of this folk song fuses American jazz harmonies and stylings with the modal Chinese melody, evoking the melancholy and the delicacy of a human sadness: a lost and forgotten child, crying out for her mother.

Read November 22, 2019 by the UNT Concert Orchestra in Winspear Hall, Denton, TX conducted by Gaby Garzón.

小白菜 / Little Cabbage

I am a composer of electroacoustic and concert pieces working in Denton, TX.

I'm always interested in collaborating with other artists and musicians, so feel free to reach out. 

My Website: https://www.garrisongerard.com

Alluvial Reverberations (2025)

Garrison

Related tracks