for saxophone quartet
Recorded and premiered by the ~Nois Saxophone Quartet in Chicago Il, November 2021.

Murmurs of Motion - for SSAA saxophone quartet

Premiered by Quatuor Diotima, April 9, 2022 at Fulton Hall in Chicago, Il.

between threads and glimmers - for string quartet

Multitudes - for orchestra (2023)

I have lately been fascinated by the work of the relatively unknown abstract expressionist artist, Norman Lewis. Compared with his contemporaries like Rothko or Pollock, Lewis is not featured in contemporary art exhibits across the world, yet his art speaks with volumes of intensity and power. I first came across his piece, Multitudes, which was tucked away in a corner of the “Art of the Americas” wing in the Art Institute of Chicago, but I was immediately allured by the layering of jagged lines and angular shapes over beautiful hues of melting color fields. In this work and many others by Lewis, a quasi-optical illusion forms; when attempting to focus on either the hues or the lines, the other is, in fact, drawn out even more. It’s as if the lines are in relief of the shadings and the shadings are in relief of the lines. The title of Lewis’ painting comes from Walt Whitman’s “Songs of Myself”: “Do I contradict myself?/Very well then I contradict myself,/(I am large, I contain multitudes).” In this piece, I drew on both the ideas of contrasting and layering lines and shadows as well as the balance of foreground and background as are both present in my experience of the painting. There are moments of multiple melodic shapes forming both a shadow and a composite melody; articulations against the melodic shape; linear melodies being drawn out into a harmonic field yet activated on the surface; or a focus on the angular melodies while a macro-harmonic motion evolves more slowly in the background. By having sections which draw attention towards certain elements foreground/background and jagged/hues dichotomies of the painting, I attempt to create my own “multitude” of experiences that all stem from one central, connected idea. Multitudes was written for the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, conducted by Tim Weiss in Spring 2023.

Performed April 2023 by the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and conductor Tim Weiss, Symphony Center, Chicago, IL. Recording Engineer, Mark Alletag.

Many thanks to Jonathan McCormick and Anna Thompson.

Multitudes - for orchestra

Seeing Through - for viola and piano
Commissioned by Les Ecoles d'Art Américaines de Fontainebleau and premiered by Corley Friesen-Johnson (viola) and Fanny Bracco (piano) in July 2023.

Recording of performance by Brian Hong (viola) and Han Chen (piano) of NEXUS Chamber Music in Chicago, Il in April 2025.
Image: Reflected Moon by Norman Lewis

Seeing through is a continuation of my recent work that has drawn inspiration from the work of abstract expressionist painter, Norman Lewis. While doing research on Lewis, I came across his work Reflected Moon, on a gallery’s website. This painting uses a style that is characteristic of much of Lewis’ work, where there are seemingly straight lines and pointed edges that are blurred to give a hazy shadow—almost as if I am looking at clear lines without my glasses. However, this painting not only has these entrancing lines and shadows where I am drawn into focus but am constantly eluded, but also features an orb-like shape in the center of the painting, perhaps the moon as the title describes. That this is the only shape that has a clear definition immediately draws me into the center of the painting and gives the sensation that the other hazier shapes are emanating outwards from it. My overall experience of this painting is one of fluid and buoyant motion, of a luminous world where we are constantly moving but simultaneously frozen in the middle with the central orb. Seeing through is an indirect representation of my experience of this painting where there are active textures of single line that grow into holistic harmonies, a serene section of steady 8th notes colored by the viola that feels both suspended and cascading, and all centers to one moment in the middle of the piece where the piano plays stopped notes in the piano colored by viola harmonics. Seeing through was written for the Ecoles d'Art Américaines de Fontainebleau for premiere in July 2023.

Seeing Through - for viola and piano

through depths and shadows - for sinfonietta (2023).

through depths and shadows continues my recent exploration of the relationship between music and the visual arts. through depths and shadows was inspired by Jackson Pollock's fascinating and atypical piece, The Deep, which I saw this summer at the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Unlike many of his athletic and excited “drip paintings,” this one seemed to have a much more measured and slower energy. The painting layers large swaths of colors on the canvas—while also maintaining distinct lines, gestures, and shapes—allowing for the various shades to make their presence known or hidden depending on the other colors present. My experience of this piece was very different from what I usually experience with Pollock; rather than experiencing dynamic and vibrant motion across the painting, I felt like I was continually sucked into the canvas and attempting to find myself within the layers of the “deep.” Looking at this painting became an experience of continual exploration and uncovering, in a way that is analogous to exploring the many layers of one's self. through depths and shadows is not a literal representation of the painting but an abstraction of both Pollock’s materials—his modes of layering, sporadic drips, and gradual unveiling—and my experience of continually searching within the shadings and underlayers. through depths and shadows was written with admiration for the incredible virtuosi of the Grossman Ensemble.

Commissioned by the Grossman Ensemble and the Center for Contemporary Music at the University of Chicago. Premiered December 2023 with the Grossman Ensemble and conductor, Georgia Mills. Recording Engineer, Chris Willis.

through depths and shadows - for sinfonietta

Four Harmonies: Reflections of Monet - for mixed quintet (2024)

i: propulsive harmony
ii: tender harmony
iii: floating harmony
iv: dancing harmony

Four Harmonies: Reflections of Monet responds to a series of paintings of Monet which I recently saw at Musée D’Orsay in Paris. The paintings were of the Rouen Cathedral and, as is typical of Monet, he painted multiple variations on the Cathedral’s façade with different hues and shadings, and he titled them various “Harmonies” depending on the colors that are primary in the painting. What struck me was not so much Monet’s characteristic cycles of paintings, but the simplistic, yet evocative titling of these as “Harmonies,” particularly since the “harmony” is what changes while the subject stays constant. In Four Harmonies, there are four continuous movements which are all based on closely related harmonic material. In this way, the constant subject is harmony in the musical sense, while the evolving contexts of each movement are treated like unfolding colors as harmonies in a visual art medium, in an effort to create different shadings and explorations of a single subject. In this way, the piece becomes an approximation of a single subject based on multiple viewpoints, angles, or perspectives, as is the case for the Monet series. 

Four Harmonies was written for and premiered by the TAK Ensemble in April 2024. Recording Engineer, David Bird.

Four Harmonies: Reflections of Monet - for mixed quintet

of stone and spring - for solo viola and electronics (2024)

of stone and spring draws on materials from my collaborations on installations with the architecture students at Les Ecoles d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau during my time there in Summer 2023. We collaborated on projects inspired by multiple architectural elements of the Fonteainbleau Chateau, including the flows of water from differing roofs, the materiality and process of compression of stone, and the transformation of the use and function of water at the Chateau, beginning with its initial source as a spring. To represent aspects of this musically, I have the violist play only on its lowest string and have them play its entire length to attempt to mimic the extreme process of sand compression. Similarly, the violist uses circular bows (which also has a both a very “sandy” or “water glistening” sonic effect), and a circular nature of form to create parallels between the cyclical nature of erosion and stone formation. All of the electronic sounds also come from naturally occurring sounds—including pre-recorded viola, streams flowing, and saxophone multiphonics—which were granularized and processed in a number of ways to have the natural-to-manmade evolution that is seen in many elements of the Chateau and its own constant evolution. What emerges is an immersive soundscape that exists in a single world and follows a cyclical and round design.

of stone and spring was workshopped by Corley Friesen-Johnson at Les Ecoles d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau in July 2023 and premiered by Sophie McMillan-Myers in April 2024.

of stone and spring - for solo viola and electronics

Reflective Contours - for reed quintet (2025)

Reflective Contours responds to the relation of two primary materials in Norman Lewis’ painting, Street Musicians. In this painting, the central foreground consists of a collection of jagged shapes and calligraphic lines combining bright colors and dark shadings. Surrounding this exists a hazy framing, which consists of largely the same color palette but as greyed and blurred clouds. I am captivated by the collective and playful energy in the central material that seems to recede to the outer edges of the misty texture. In my experience of the painting, the tender framing quells the energy of the central activity with a gentle and reflective hue, while the central motion gives a buoyancy to the haziness. Thinking about the collective activity in everyday musicmaking, in Reflective Contours, I wanted to highlight the virtuosity of the quintet by creating a web of interweaving lines in both movements; sharp and angular in the first movement and resonant and tender in the second movement. These two characters inform the experience of the other, echoing on my experience of Lewis’ painting. Reflective Contours was written with admiration for the Akropolis Reed Quintet and the RED NOTE Music Festival.

Premiered in March 2025 by the Akropolis Reed Quintet at Illinois State University. 
Tim Gocklin, Oboe
Kari Landry, Clarinet
Matt Landry, Saxophone
Ryan Reynolds, Bassoon
Andrew Koeppe, Bass Clarinet

Reflective Contours - for reed quintet

Beyond Color There is Light ACE - for pierrot sextet (2025)

Beyond Color There Is Light draws on my experience at the massive Rothko Retrospective at the Foundation Louis Vuitton in Paris in January 2024.  It was truly surreal to see 115 Rothkos in a single space and there was a beautiful, enigmatic, and luminous aura among the entire space. Seeing so many of these paintings, and seeing them so closely, one starts to realize how one-sided it is to characterize these paintings as still or suspended; these are incredibly active paintings filled with magnitude of tiny details in color, brushstrokes, and shapes that add so much to the vibrancy of the work. These micro-activities also helped create the sense of inner illumination that Rothko sought to create from within the paintings themselves. In Beyond Color There is Light, I try to capture this duality of stillness and create a sense of luminosity through the orchestrational and harmonic worlds. Through passages of driving melodic lines and rich harmonic webs, a passage of dreamy, floating, and rustling chords with a lyrical cello solo, and an animated, mixed-meter passage, the experience of this piece is as if we notice all of the tiny details flash before our eyes, but we still maintain this shimmering and suspended world in our presence. Beyond Color There Is Light was written with appreciation and admiration for the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble and Tim Weiss. 

Tim Weiss, conductor
Antonina Styczen, flute
Ian McEdwards, clarinet
Laura Gamboa, violin
Miles Reed, cello
Seth Schultheis, piano
Xin Yi Chong, percussion

Beyond Color There Is Light - for pierrot sextet

Colin Roshak, clarinet
Aliya Ultan, cello

i - 0:00
ii - 1:35
iii - 5.27

Three Pieces for Clarinet and Cello

Aliya Ultan, cello
Performed in Oberlin, OH on April 23, 2017

I don't bleed sweet - for solo cello

Premiered by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony with Steven Smith conducting in March 2017.

Single Seed - for chamber orchestra

for soprano saxophone
Premiered by Allison Balcetis in Chicago, IL, January 2020

Still Fields - for solo soprano saxophone

Justin Weiss is a composer and conductor whose music explores relationships between the visual arts and music through the intersection of lyricism, textural play, and transformational forms. Justin’s music has been recognized with a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Prix Langage Musical from Les Écoles d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau, the Walter E. Aschaffenburg, and awards and recognitions from institutions such as ASCAP, Society of Composers, Inc., and The American Prize, Tribeca New Music, and YoungArts. 

Justin’s music has been performed internationally by ensembles including Quatuor Diotima, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Grossman Ensemble, TAK Ensemble, Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble, Sandbox Percussion Quartet, and ~Nois Saxophone Quartet. Justin is the conductor of the University of Chicago New Music Ensemble, a co-founder and conductor of the new ensemble, Mycelium New Music, and has premiered dozens of pieces internationally. Justin studied at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the Royal Academy of Music in London, and is a PhD Fellow at the University of Chicago where he studies with Augusta Read Thomas.

Justin Weiss - Composer

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