Selected Works

Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s posthumous publication La Ciudad de Vapor (The Steam City or City of Steam) is perhaps one of the most eclectic, and representative samples of the author’s inventive, highly descriptive, enveloping style that span several narrative timelines, genres, and worlds. 

The way in which each short story’s narrative is spun in deceptive, unexpected arcs through ephemeral, abstract gestures, and flares, really proved poignant in the composition of this piece, but also in thinking of aesthetics and my musical identity as a whole. 

Performed by Ensemble Dal Niente members:

Katie Schoepflin-Jimoh, clarinets
Matthew Oliphant, horn in F
Ben Melsky, harp
Ammie Brod, viola
Michael Lewanski, conductor

Gannon Concert Hall
DePaul University School of Music
Saturday, July 31, 2021
4:00 PM

This piece was written in the ocassion of Ensemble Dal Niente & DePaul Summer New Music Residency 2021.

La Ciudad De Vapor (2021, performed by Ensemble Dal Niente)

In 2017, Puerto Rico was devasted by the impact of Hurricane María. Floods, months long power outages, food scarcity and societal collapse ensued, through the whole social order into disarray and causing the deaths of over 4,000 people. Most of these deaths being from the lack of emergency services and other much needed social structures. Political instability, economic stagnation and many other factors led me to write my Elegía for the Victims of Hurricane María and us for concert band.
This present work, however, is motivated by the incredible rage that has angered thousands of Puerto Ricans in and out of the land, after the landfall of Hurricane Fiona that caused almost the very same damage, five years later. Fury, not because of the nature of these kinds of uncontrollable weather patterns, but because of the government’s complete incompetence, lack of preparation and foresight to avert or ameliorate the disaster and be of help to the people.
Whereas in Elegía I was mournful for a world and nature lost, here I am angry for the one that we’re still living in.

HASTA QUE EL CORAZÓN AGUANTE (recorded live by Tacet(i) Ensemble)

This piece was conceived, composed, and finished while constantly clashing against different pathways and possibilities. Time and time again I found myself in different bisected roads as the title suggests and much like in life’s many unknowable and erratic decision-making processes, I just let the material suggest the constant ebb and flow of expressive interaction that happens between both instruments. Amidst all this seemingly diffuse and foggy landscape the piece initially suggests, different “truths” and ideas take shape, blur, and materialize. 

The issue of just being, melancholy, nostalgia, and the uncertainty of the present and future are explored.

with bated breath in the middle of a bisected road (performed by Christopher Agnew and Alyson Kanne)

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

As a person born in Yauco, Puerto Rico, the name of Amaury Veray is heard sporadically when his most famous piece of music (performed and recorded all over the world) the Christmas carol: “Villancico Yauco”, is mentioned. This piece of ephemeral music aside, his contributions to music, particularly music history and composition, became cemented when he along with several other Puerto Rican composers started a modernist movement of Nationalistic Music. 

The present piece is a reaction to among all of the above, the expectations that minority composers face whenever they are asked about their background, the role these elements may play in our imaginaries and the various ways in which these constant considerations of identity, nostalgia, loss of a sense of permanence shape our perspective of ourselves and the world around us.

This piece was commissioned and Premiered by Tianhui Ng and the MIFA Victory Players:
Nathan Ben-Yuhuda, piano
Linda Hwang, cello
Justin Ouelette, violin
Giovanni A. Pérez, piccolo/flute
Robert Rocheteau, percussion

my father never knew Amaury Veray (performed by Tianhui Ng and the MIFA Victory Players)

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.