My entry for the SFCM 9th Biennial Art Song Competition. Text by Emily Dickinson. Performance by Lindsay Martin and myself at the piano.

Come Slowly — Eden 

Come slowly — Eden 
Lips unused to Thee —
Bashful — sip thy Jessamines
As the fainting Bee.

Reaching late his flower, 
Round her chamber hums —
Counts his nectars —
Enters — and is lost in Balms.

Come Slowly – Eden

This piece was written in 2019 for a dear friend, Sydney Canlas. 

Performed by another pair dear friends, Ellen Hayashi on the violin and Dr. Whitney Pizza on the piano.

Nocturne for Violin and Piano

Performed by Jolie Fitch (flute), Nicholas Weathers (clarinet), Ben Engelmann (horn), Caleb Smit (percussion), Evan Harper and Jenna Flohr (violins), Paulina Flores (viola), Clark Evans (cello), and Audrey Giancaterino (bass). 

Conducted by: Nick Sievers

There’s a siren at the end.

Four Pieces For 9 Players: II. and III.

And the poor stars,
Those that have no light,
are abandoned on a blurry blue.

What pain, what suffering!

Frederico Garcia Lorca (1898 - 1936)


Performed by the EAMA Chorale

Orphanage

Yelling, a bike, hazy noise, a small dog, a waltz, happy birthday, the wind, sirens, gates open and close.

Sound Collage (Waltz)

Text by e. e. cummings

touching you i say(it being Spring
and night) "let us go a very little beyond
the last road–there's something to be found"

and smiling you answer "everything
turns into something else, and slips away . . . . 
(these leaves are Thingish with moondrool 
and i'm ever so very little afraid")

i say "along this particular road the moon if you'll
notice follows us like a big yellow dog.       You

don't believe?     look back.    (Along the sand 
behind us, a big yellow dog that's . . . . now it's red 
a big red dog that may be owned by who
knows)
          only turn a little your.   so.    And

there's the moon, there is something faithful and mad"

Performed by mezzo-soprano Hope Nelson

touching you i say

Performed by the San Francisco Choral Artists, conducted by Dr. Magen Solomon

2nd Prize Winner of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music 16th Biennial Choral Composition Competition, Dr. David Conte, director. 

Text by e e cummings (1894 - 1962)

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere 
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done 
by only me is your doing,my darling)
                                                          i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant 
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows 
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

i carry your heart with me

Two Preludes: II. Totentanz

Performed by mezzo-soprano Lindsay Martin.

Texts by Robert Louis Stevenson, Joaquin Kiko, and Lewis Carroll.

Recorded by Dylan Williams.

Five Songs

Commissioned by The Curtis Institute Young Artist Summer Program
Written for and performed by Alex Eastley.

Jarron Carlson

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