i mourned you twice this week and will again tomorrow

the likelihood of forgetting

recorded on iPhone, 1960's Phillips electric organ

short improvisation

*performed by saxophonist, Thomas Kurtz 

from my window there|s a lighthouse (2016), was commissioned by saxophonist Samuel Detweiler and performed by saxophonist Thomas Kurtz on December 7th 2016. Performance by Detweiler is scheduled in 2017. 
​
from my window, draws loose inspiration from Ocean Vuong's poem, "my father writes from prison," from his larger collection, Night Sky With Exit Wounds. The work utilizes extended techniques for soprano saxophone while exploring the ideas of quiet destruction and rebirth.

from my window there|s a lighthouse

"lung", for C flute, b-flat clarinet, and saxophone.

lung

Live recording of my work "lung," performed by the Amaranth String Quartet .

crutch

Soprano: Amber Evans 

fac ut ardeat| (2018) was commissioned by Amber Evans and the Cortona Collective for New Music. I met Amber over the summer while at the Cortona Sessions for New Music in Italy, and over the course of the festival became friends and collaborators.

The title, fac ut ardeat|, comes not from the Sabat Mater but instead comes from a description of an inscribed fireplace in Rachel Kushner’s book, The Flamethowers, and roughly translates to, “made to burn.” This idea of violent disposability is integral to the work; as each line of text is sung, each gesture is consumed by a series of live delays and disintegrates each line of text to make room for the following events, leaving behind smoldering remains.

fac ut ardeat|

corpse song, draws upon a Margaret Atwood poem of the same name from 1974. The text was interpreted as timbral and durational material while the pitch material of the piece was derived from a recording of myself reading selected lines from the poem; 
I bring you something you do not want:  
news of your future:
 soon you will have no voice  		
(My body turned against me too soon,  		
it was not a tragedy)  		
(I did not become 		
a tree or a constellation  		
(I became this illusion, this trick of 			
ventriloquism)  
swollen with words you never said, 
 swollen with hoarded love.  
I exist in two places, here and where you are.  
Pray for me not as I am but as I am.

Clarinet: Ford Fourqurean, Tape: Ryan Muncy

corpse song | for clarinet and tape

liminal spaces no 2

"aponea" 

performed by josh modney, nicole cherry, martine thomas, katinka kleijn, josé martínez, and corey smithe; conducted by steven schick

concert recording: 7/13/19

aponea

the body is [a] great wanting (2019) 

Written for the 2019 Dal Niente Residency at Northwestern University. Performed by Constance Volk (bass flute), Katie Schoepflin(bass clarinet) and Ben Melsky (harp).

the body is [a] great wanting

Lisa Atkinson (b.1992) is a Chicago-based composer whose work endeavors to explore interiority through the tactile, visceral nature of live-performance and the emotional context of gesture while examining issues of fragility, memory, timbre, time, and perception.

Popular tracks by Lisa Atkinson | Composer