Works performed live on my senior composition recital on April 23, 2016 in Bowling Green State University's Bryan Recital Hall.

The Wishing Well

Half Light

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Untrammeled

Performed in Bedford Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside by Teil Buck, Ethan Lippert, Valerie Whitney (5HE), Connor Thummel, and Katherine Petersen (5HE) as part of the the 2016 Fresh Inc Festival.

Bedford

April Showers

Improvisatory piece for oboe and live electronics. Performed live in Bryan Recital Hall at Bowling Green State University by Lydia Dempsey, May 2016.

Flicker

Composed by Kristi Fullerton (1992) for the 2016 Splice Festival, performed by Lydia Dempsey (Oboe) and Paul Mizzi (Flute) in Bryan Recital Hall at Bowling Green State University, Nov. 2016.

ajar

Commissioned by Nermis Mieses and Xavier Suarez, who premiered the piece at the International Double Reed Society Conference 2017 at Lawrence University in Appleton, WI.

In 2016, I finished writing and staging a ballet, titled The Wishing Well. Collaborating with a choreographer let me observe how dancers approach and interact with music, and the project encouraged me to gain firsthand experience by taking my first ballet class since dancing as a child. This work is meant as a glimpse of the beauty and intensity I found when learning to dance.

In ballet, pas de deux, the literal translation from French meaning step of two, is a duet typically danced by a male and female. The five sections of grand pas de deux (entrée, adagio, two variations, and coda) form the structure of this piece. The love story drama commonly found in this form is captured in the interaction between the oboe and piano. Throughout most of the piece, the piano depicts the strength and solidity required of the danseur. The oboe represents the ballerina, such as when timbre trills are used to sonically imitate bourrée, a step where the ballerina is on pointe with her feet close together and takes many extremely small, quick steps that make her appear to be floating.

Pas de Deux

In my string quartet, I use quarter-tones and long glissandi that occupy a small pitch range to explore the interaction of pitches on a micro-level. The intense focus on a small range of pitch recalibrates one’s listening. When a larger melodic interval finally arrives it is overwhelming.

This recording is from a reading session with the JACK Quartet, sponsored by the University of Iowa School of Music and Center for New Music.

String Quartet

In photography, a catchlight is a reflected light found in the subject's eyes or on a shiny surface. Photographers manipulate this light to energize the image. the electronic element in this piece acts as a musical catchlight for the piano. It adds textures the piano is unable to produce alone, but it is also colored by the piano as it is reflected into the hall. The natural vibrations of the piano merge with the artificial resonance, making the two inseparable.

Lydia Dempsey

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