Commissioned by Copland House for CULTIVATE 2021
Completed 03/25/2021

Recorded by Pala Garcia (violin), Alexis Pia Gerlach (cello), Moran Katz (clarinet), and Peggy Kampmeier (piano)

Based on Mokha Laget's 'Moroccan Capriccio'

I first met Mokha at an artist colony during the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. We both felt extraordinarily fortunate to have been given the opportunity to concentrate on creating art during such an exhausting time, and as such, we both spent the majority of our residencies working in our respective studios. It was only in the tail-end of Mokha’s stay that I finally got to see her work. 

I was instantly enthralled. Her paintings possessed a palpable immediacy through their surprising scale, vibrant contrasts, and endearing whimsy. They were frequently unpredictable - trying to follow any one particular shape, I would quickly lose my place in a sea of impossible geometries. Even so, when I stepped back to consider the whole, Mokha’s paintings nonetheless felt cohesive and organic. We spoke then and there about collaborating, eventually deciding that I would write a new work based on her Moroccan Capriccio. 

The resulting piece, Intuitive Geometry, seeks to capture the same kind of mercurial yet self-consistent discourse that defines Mokha’s resplendent art. Filled with whirling arpeggios, mixed meters, and restless modulations, the piece is one of constant motion. Should any listener try to follow any one particular instrument, they might quickly become lost - yet even as ideas ricochet between the members of the quartet, the piece remains united through its economy of material. Virtually every gesture is built out of an unevenly oscillating third, ensuring that the piece as a whole maintains its congruence.

It was delicious fun translating Mokha’s kaleidoscopic architectures into music, and I am truly grateful for her friendship and artistic generosity.

Chamber Pieces

Intuitive Geometry, for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

Calame, pour 17 musiciens (2021)

Ensemble des étudiants en DAIC
Franck Ollu, direction

Enregistré le 18 mars 2022 au Conservatoire national supérieur de Paris (Salle Maurice Fleuret)
Ingénieur-son : Jean-Baptiste Nirascou

Photo : Emmanuel Breteau

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Calame, for 17 musicians (2021)

Students of the DAIC-program
Franck Ollu, conductor

Recorded on March 18th, 2022 at the Conservatoire national supérieur de Paris (Salle Mauric Fleuret)
Sound-engineer: Jean-Baptiste Nirascou

Picture: Emmanuel Breteau

Calame, for 17 musicians (2021)

Rings: Paths and Passing explores themes of loss, inner-antagonism, and transformation. Grounding this exploration is the movement of sound through the ensemble and a poem by Rainer Marie Rilke: ich lebe mein Leben in wachsenden Ringen // “I live my life in growing rings.”

Rings: Paths And Passing

Written for Alarm Will Sound, amplified sinfonietta and live keyboard sampler for the electronics.

Hasta que no pueda (2023)

Michael Hersch
MEDEA - (excerpt 1)
Libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann
Sarah Maria Sun, soprano
Schola Heidelberg
Bas Wiegers, conductor
Ensemble Musikfabrik
live performance - June 3, 2023
Commissioned by Ensemble Musikfabrik and Kunststiftung NRW
PROGRAM NOTE (in German, with English language libretto included)- https://www.musikfabrik.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/MUFA22822-WDR-Programm-85-230511.pdf
PROGRAM NOTE (English Translation) - https://michaelhersch.com/works/program/MEDEA.html

MEDEA - (excerpt 1)

Completed August 23, 2023

Premiered at the Cube, Virginia Tech, September 26, 2023 by Derek Shapiro (cond.), Ariana Wyatt (sop.), Betsy Lantz (fl.), Michelle Smith Johnson (cl.), Kyle Hutchins (sax), Annie Stevens (perc.), Gloria Engle (pno.), John Irrera (vln.), Molly Wilkens-Reed (vla.), Alan Weinstein (vc.), and Charles Nichols (ambisonic mapping). 

Commissioned by Gordon Yee

I have a complicated relationship with Christianity. There are few, though, who could purport to have as complicated a faith as Saint Augustine’s. He was a thinker blessed with the two attributes needed to ensure one’s legacy: a relentless, obsessive, autocannibalistic thought life, and the need to write it down. 

And write, he did: Augustine’s seminal texts, the Confessions chief among them, are difficult works, filled with surprising vulnerability, heady hermeneutics, and harsh self-flagellation. A searing streak of humility - indeed, bordering on self-hatred - runs throughout, as Augustine believed that the existence of evil on a global and personal scale stemmed solely from human weakness.

Unlike many of my churched peers, I did not inherit my faith - rather, I had been the first in my family to convert, and I eventually realized I might be one of the first to step away. I was well- acquainted with the kind of Augustinian guilt that pervaded Christian thought, and I experienced firsthand the kind of painful self-loathing that came with such emphatic doctrines of sin. 

I was deeply struck when I encountered Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo’s wryly meandering poem simply titled To St. Augustine. Liu had been an insistent thorn in the Chinese Communist Party’s side for much of his life, though his contrarian nature meant that he was equally critical of Western ideology - including, naturally, Augustine. I was fascinated to see someone outside the faith engage with it so candidly, and I identified closely with his oblique perspective on Augustine’s work.

I chose to interpret Liu’s poem from my perspective as both an insider and an outsider to Christianity. The music veers between rumination and outcry, mashing together abrasive, distorted samples of hymns with floating, dreamlike textures. Though the piece searches for some kind of equilibrium in the contradictions of God, it ends with a perhaps inevitable ambiguity. 

This piece is dedicated to my brother, who was always a step or two ahead of me in matters of faith and philosophy. Many thanks to the Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts for commissioning and realizing the piece through their Yee Commission.

To Saint Augustine, for soprano, mixed ensemble, and fixed media

Cómo Resquebrajar un torso- How to break a torso: 
This piece explores the profound journey of transformation from nature to a musical expression by speculating on the narrative behind the construction of a guitar. Inspired by the Argentinian Guitarist Atahualpa Yupanki and his phrase: " The guitar before being an instrument, already knew about music as they were trees that listened to the birds and learned it".

Interpretation by counter)induction, January 2024, University of Pittsburgh.

Cómo Resquebrajar Un Torso (2023) for ensemble

The seemingly unconnected nature of words mingling with instrumental sounds lend themselves to an air of pretentious flourishes of superficiality, whose echoes of veracity and untruth reverberate in equal measure. Our realities and perceptions shaped by the expectations of what may be expressed, a palimpsest of all our cumulative experiences makes us question, anticipate, and judge the message or the art of the poet, their intention. Funnily enough in this absurd notion of how or what should the work of the composer be with the text, in all its tedium and criticism, they deftly try to fuse their and the poet’s figure in a bizarre pentimento to make every inquisitive notion both suggested and negated. To share their words and the poet’s music. Accepted and denied. North and south. Up and down.

Nada, poem by Julia de Burgos

Premiered at Elebash Hall, Graduate Center CUNY by:
Christopher Herbert
Josh Modney
Yezu Woo
Martine Thomas
Mariel Roberts

II. Nada, from reflejo cristalino, onírico, pétreo

Premiere performance at The Shed as part of the Norfolk Choral Festival, Norfolk, Connecticut, 17 August 2019.

Emily Donato, soprano;
Simon Carrington, conductor;
The Norfolk Festival chorus and ensemble.

Talking If You Are Going To Talk

song cycle for autotuned mezzo-soprano, keyboard, and electronics. Performed by Andrea Camacho.

I. Necesito Refrenarme

Known for his compelling, expressive and socially aware music, Puerto Rican composer Julio Elvin Quiñones writes works that are imbued with visceral gestures, intuition and represent every aspect of his identity.

His music has been performed by many ensembles like the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico’s Symphony Orchestra and Concert Band, the Omnibus Ensemble, the JACK Quartet, loadbang, Ensemble Dal Niente and Talea Ensemble; additionally he’s also been performed by known soloists: Katsyarina Shaposhka, James Alexander, Hakeem Davison and Katherine Needleman. 

Julio is currently pursuing his doctoral studies at the Graduate Center CUNY, having studied with Suzanne Farrin, Jason Eckhardt and Jeff Nichols. He holds a Master's degree from the Peabody Conservatory with Michael Hersch and a Bachelor's Degree from the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico with Alfonso Fuentes.

II. Nada, from reflejo cristalino, onírico, pétreo

Julio Elvin Quiñones

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