Poppies, tied deeply to sleep, peace, and death, has long been a symbol to fallen soldiers. My second string quartet, “poppies bursting into bloom in the wind and rain”, is a response to Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae’s war poem In Flanders Fields. May the world be at peace forever and may you and my heart be at peace forever. The work is dedicated to those spirits who have suffered from war.

First performance:
by the JACK Quartet, at Merkin Hall NYC on March 10 2021

Poppies bursting into bloom in the wind and rain (2020)

Tobira Records Instore Showcase Vol.10 July 3rd 2021 (Rehearsal Demo)

Composed 2016-18 on original texts

 EXAUDI vocal ensemble:
Emma Tring & Cressida Sharp, soprano
Lucy Goddard, mezzo-soprano
Tom Williams, countertenor
David de Winter & Stephen Jeffes, tenor
Michael Hickman & Simon Whiteley, bass

James Weeks, director

World premiere performance recorded May 16, 2022 
Milton Court Concert Hall,  London UK

Cicada June | Geheimlicht

Performed on 11-11-17 as a part of the 2017 Midwest Composers' Symposium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. 

Yixue Zhang, violin I
Can Balcik-Moretti, violin II
Therese Slatter, viola
Hui-Hsuan Su, cello
Jeremy Maas, conductor

charlotte sits in stillness explores questions raised in Sofia Coppola’s 2003 film, Lost in Translation. “Who am I?” “What am I doing?” “Where (and with whom) am I going?” The film follows a man and a woman as they develop a complicated relationship that is best, but inadequately, described by the word “love.” Throughout my quartet, the idea of a centralized beat becomes a silly notion - a fantasy - and rhythm cannot accurately describe the experienced relationships. Togetherness is relative, and closeness remains ambiguous.

charlotte sits in stillness (2017 version)

PIP Expo presents: Aura Rendón Benger & Leslie Nagel
Installation in PIP, The Hague 2017

PIP Expo 2017 Excerpt 2

Tallinn Chamber Orchestra, 
conducted by Risto Joost
Live recording from ISCM World Music Days/Estonian Music Days 2019
sound engineer Tanel Klesment, ERR

Composing sound fields with natural harmonics of the strings can lead to unexpected acoustic balances and resonances full of suddenly appearing and disappearing sound colors. It creates an immediacy for the performers to react to. Sometimes the music polarises between clear resonance and noise while in silence one can still hear the echoes from the previous experience. Chords are building up and transforming in several speeds, allowing one to shift focus between the overall shape of the form and its detail, creating a similar instance that the viewer might have when looking at a(n abstract) painting.

Canvas / sulam (2019)

[r]amp Festival, June 6th, 2019 

Christine Burke, clarinet
Vero Rose Smith, french horn
Carlos Cotallo Solares, violin
Justin Comer, tenor sax
Alex Spenceri, euphonium

charlotte sits in stillness (2017 version)

Jeremy Maas

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