Ghost Dream

2020 was a painful year for everyone. As I began to compose this piece, I felt the need to create something calming and serene, a feeling that I and the rest of the world had been missing that year. And so "Everlasting Sky" was born. This piece evokes the feeling of laying on the grass and looking up at the sky, with the clouds forever flowing peacefully above us.

It was premiered on October 21st, 2021 at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Everlasting Sky

Stephen Caplan, oboe
Ellen Hummel, English horn
Kincaid Rabb, narrator
Lucas Martins, violin
Chengyu Ren, violin
Andrew Vasquez, viola
Jeayoung Jo, cello

Three Aviaries for Oboe, English Horn, Narrator, and String Quartet is a chamber monodrama that explores the disorientating, ecstatic, and lonely world of being neurodivergent. A seamless integration of storytelling and music, Three Aviaries asks its audience one question: are you like its author, or are you like most people?

Three Aviaries for Oboe, English Horn, Narrator, and String Quartet

Dancing While Others Sleep - Flute, Harp, Viola

String quartet composed and premiered at the New Music for a New Year Festival (at Michigan Tech University — January 2019.)

Premiered by the Superior String Alliance Quartet (Lauren Pulcipher and Dani Simandl, violins — Ria Hodgson, viola — Kelly Quesada, cello.)

3. Revenge Body

2. The Rest Will Take Care Of Itself

1. Wishful Thinking

The piece looks at the idea of human identity as a constantly proliferating multitude, an (in)balance of different elements pushing and pulling a person in different directions. The performer plays solo and yet speaks in an internal monologue while fantasies of the single line’s multiplication and modification dance unpredictably around the installation. The three elements morph, shape and transform each other in creating the fundamental flux and drama of a constituted subject, reflected publicly in the spatial orientation of the sound, originally for an 18-channel presentation on special "sound-dice” speakers and presented here in a stereo mix.

Anatomies of the Self (2020)

Syrup and Silicone is centred on the narrative of internal standards within the queer community – reflecting on past experiences of being told “you’re not gay enough”, “you’re not really gay” and so on. 

The queer community is a such a beautiful, vibrant one with so many diverse people – like a rich, sweet syrup. Yet, what has also been fostered within is internal marginalisation and a certain adhesive, plastic fakeness – like silicone. 

The work is highly personal and aims to call into question the irony of such an accepting community that concurrently can create such a sense and need to still conform to a set of criteria, instead of thriving in our individuality. 

For me, my sexuality as a gay man is a part of my identity, but by no means my whole identity and I believe it is paramount to let anyone within the queer community freely determine that themselves.

The work was commissioned by Divisi Chamber Singers and Sally Whitwell as part of the inaugural 2020 “Compose Queer” Initiative in FEB 2020, and received its world premiere on 26th FEB 2021 at 75 Reid Street Fitzroy North, Australia.

The work sets commissioned poetry for this project by Naarm (Melbourne, AUS) based artist, writer and theatre practitioner Savanna Wegman, a close colleague and friend. 
				   		     		      Time: ~ 4mins 40 seconds

SET TEXT
Excerpt from the poem “Palm Reading”

My Hands are wide open
They read soft perfumed palms, primed for an encounter.
Searchlights that look too closely, (for) too long
Smooth me into marble, a figure I can’t recognise
I wait for calm and comfort in the dawn,
Suspended in syrup and silicone
© Savanna Wegman, March 2020

***since its premiere, Syrup and Silicone has received repeat performances and also been featured on Divisi Chamber Singers’ debut album “Spectrum”:  Australia’s first ever fully queer/LGBTQIA+ classical music album sourcing queer/LGBTQIA+ local composers and text.

Performers: Divisi Chamber Singers
Premiered on 26/02/21 at 75 Reid St Fitzroy North

Illustration © Lucinda McIntyre
All rights reserved © Robert McIntyre 2020

Syrup and Silicone (LIVE)(SSAATTBB & piano)(2020)(Divisi Chamber Singers)

Two Parts (2019) - reed quintet
by Buck McDaniel 

Ekklesia Reed Quintet:
Sue Keserich, oboe
Willow DiGiacomo, clarinet
Thomas Lempner, alto saxophone
Travis Hogue-Smith, bass clarinet
Philip Kish, bassoon 

Live Recording
WRUW-FM Studios
Cleveland, Ohio

Two Parts (2019) - reed quintet

Nebal Maysaud
with musicologist Imani Mosley

 It has been a little over a year since the publication of Nebal Maysaud’s “It’s Time To Let Classical Music Die,” which is the most widely-read article in the history of NewMusicBox. One year later, Nebal reexamines these ideas in a candid conversation with musicologist Imani Mosley, where they discuss how to nurture a more inclusive, diverse, and equitable creative community.

audio production: Brigid Pierce

Nebal Maysaud: Rumored "Death" of Classical Music Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

www.kincaidrabb.com

Kincaid Rabb (b. 1993, they/them pronouns) is an award-winning composer, working at the intersection of storytelling and new music. Kincaid is an artist-scholar whose research includes musical narratology, emotional catharsis, and the phenomenon of the theme park as inspiration.  Using narration, worldbuilding, and a strong sense of fun and play, Kincaid creates musical experiences that immerse audiences into intimate spaces and that reward waders, swimmers, and divers alike. Kincaid produces works that trapeze artistic disciplines, curating performances that seamlessly integrate different sensory experiences and create lasting memories through music.

Kincaid’s collaborations have included Paradise Winds, The _____ Experiment, the Driftwood Quintet, Kontra Duo, Keyed Kontraptions, Duo R2, the Brelby Theatre Company, and the faculty and students at the University of Arizona and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Kincaid is a founding member of Basket of Owls, an ensemble of musician-narrators dedicated to curating spaces for unheard stories. Their principal teachers have included Douglas Harbin, Daniel Asia, Pamela Decker, Diego Vega, and Jennifer Bellor.

Currently residing in San Diego, California, Kincaid graduated with a Master of Music in Composition in 2021 from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where they held graduate assistantships in theory, composition, and musicology. They graduated from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Music in Composition in 2017. Kincaid is affiliated with ASCAP and is a NextGen Member of the Themed Entertainment Association. When not working on making more music about dinosaurs, superheroes, or wizards, Kincaid can be found riding roller coasters at local Southern California theme parks.

Three Aviaries for Oboe, English Horn, Narrator, and String Quartet

Kincaid Rabb

Related tracks