"reaching" for string quartet and electronics
M.A. Thesis, University of Chicago

Premiered 4/5/2018 by Spektral Quartet (Clara Lyon, Maeve Feinberg, Doyle Armbrust, Russell Rolen)
Cover art: Matt Omahan (www.mattomahan.com)

This piece is about striving for something - a goal, an aim, a success, etc. - and subsequently failing. However, it is not about the failure; rather, it is about the repetition of trying, attempting, reaching.

reaching, for string quartet and electronics

Kevin Kay (b. 1995) is a composer interested in the physicality of sound. He is furthermore interested in expressing the physical nature of our reality abstractly through music. Working in just intonation, his music is concerned with the sensation and perception of sound as a physical phenomenon through framework based on the physical, mathematical, and psychoacoustic properties of sound. Through an obsession with patterns and numbers in music, such mathematically oriented harmonic spaces often become entangled with temporal processes.

Kevin’s music has been performed by ensembles and musicians such as the Copland House Ensemble, Ensemble Linea, Spektral Quartet, Imani Winds, soloists from Ensemble intercontemporain, The Van Swietens, Divertimento Ensemble, zone expérimentale basel, Density512, PinkNoise Ensemble, Ghost Ensemble, and MotoContrario Ensemble, among others. As a clarinetist, he performs with red panel.

Festivals and academies that have performed his music include: the Copland House CULTIVATE emerging composers institute (2024), impuls Academy (2023), CIEL Academy (2023), the Cortona Sessions for New Music (2020 Cortona Prize winner, 2022, 2023), the International Workshop for Young Composers (2020), IRCAM’s ManiFeste Academy (2018-19), Les Ecoles d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau (2018), New Music on the Point (2017), the Yarn/Wire Institute (2017), and the NYC Electroacoustic Music Festival (2017). Kevin has been in residence at Arts Letters and Numbers (2023) and the Hambidge Center for the Arts (2022).

Kevin resides in Berlin where he stayed following support from the DAAD-Stiftung (Respekt & Wertschätzung Scholarship) to pursue composition and artistic research at the Universität der Künste Berlin with Marc Sabat. He holds a Ph.D. in Music Composition from Stony Brook University, an M.A. in the Humanities from the University of Chicago, and a B.S. in physics and music from the College of William and Mary. He has studied with Margaret Schedel, Sam Pluta, and Sophia Serghi, among others.

I am a composer of contemporary classical and electronic music.
As a founding member of Ensemble CRUSH I develop concepts for innovative concert situations that integrate music and dramaturgy.
for more information have a look at my website:
http://www.tobiassen.de/

Bryan Michael Wysocki is an Atlanta-based composer and performer who’s interested in the fusion of modern music with other art forms. As a composer, much of his music takes inspiration from other disciplines, such as poetry and prose, theatre, and the visual arts. His music has been described as “warm, and genuine, like a loving hug,” and “aggressive, energetic, and lively.” 

Bryan is currently a master’s student at Georgia State University (Atlanta, GA), where he is pursuing MMus Degrees in both Percussion Performance and Composition. Bryan is currently in the studios of Dr. Stuart Gerber (percussion) and Dr. Nickitas Demos (composition).

Hi there! I'm a composer/musician/whatnot, currently New York adjacent, studying at the Yale School of Music. Contact: aaron.i.levin@gmail.com

Kristian Josifoski (b. 1996) is a composer and percussionist based in Boston who's interests include: integrating elements of the musical vernacular into a new music idiom, using music as a metaphor for the philosophical concept of difference and repetition, enjoys working with crossfades, proportionality resonance and composed theatre.  

He earned his B.M. in Music Composition at Valparaiso University, and studied composition and theory with Benjamin Krause and Sky Macklay. Kristian has attended workshops and masterclasses by Stefan Ashbury, Joshua Rifkin, Tonia Ko, Jake Runestad, Gaudete Brass, Oystein Baadsvik, Stefon Harris, and Spektral Quartet. He earned his M.A. in Composition at NEC, and studied with John Mallia and Stratis Minakakis.

composer sometimes, weirdo always

phd harvard university
director of harvard group for new music

Evan (b. 1988) is an opera maker, composer, conductor, based in Philadelphia. His most recent opera – libretto by Aleksandar Hut Kono – Ganymede 5 premiered in the 2019 Philly Fringe Festival. Elevator, a short chamber opera, premiered in March as the first episode of the 2019 Serial Opera Project. His operas Colony and Greenland were performed in London at the Royal Opera House, and Greenland was revived in 2018 in the Philadelphia Fringe in an ENAensemble production. He is the Music Director of ENAensemble and Temple Composers Orchestra and served as President of the Temple graduate employee labor union TUGSA. 

With a background in physics, Evan’s compositions often use science as source material, collaborating with physicists on Heat Death and Turbulence. Since becoming involved in labor organizing, some of his music has taken a more political turn. Cosmos 3 – Or – A Succession of Fascist Clowns and the mock-tone poem Collective Bargaining each are based on his experiences in labor organizing. His recent orchestral works include FS and the flute concerto Blue, written in collaboration with flutist Chelsea Meynig. As co-founder and Music Director of the contemporary music theater group ENAensemble, his recent projects have included the 2019 Serial Opera Project (where ENA premiered six new chamber opera ‘episodes’), a fully-staged production of Pierrot Lunaire, and a serialized musical. As Music Director of the Temple Composers’ Orchestra, a sinfonietta which only premieres new works, he has developed and conducted the premiere of over a dozen new works.