Futurisma Phantasmagaia is a work composed for Splinter Reeds for their residency at Wesleyan University, November 2019.It consists of nine short miniatures that have nine corresponding hyper-real photographs that I also created, the culmination of an activity I started after seeing the yellow and blue underground trains of Montreal in 2013. 

The title of the work comes from the idea of fusing futurism, with 'phantasmagoria', a way of projecting images into a space with varied effects of illusion, and Gaia, which is the name of the earth - so in a sense, this is a projected possible future of our earth, or maybe another earth, or maybe an entirely different timeline all together.

When asked to write for reed quintet, a series of questions and challenges arose: how to balance, use, and compose for a set of instruments that have such individual and unique qualities in timbre, tone, and versatility. The answer, for me, sat within the realm of allowing individual lines to contribute in their uniqueness to a mass totality of sound.

Futurisma Phantasmagaia - IV: Machina

Conversation (2015)

Words by Ruth Wenger 
Cello/Voice: Ruth Wenger

Premiered:
April 2015, Phoenix AZ

Conversation, for solo cello (2015)

"En mi caminar en el desierto
levantaré mi mirada hacia el horizonte
mi mano llega hasta el cielo
las maravillosas tortugas vienen hacia mí"

                             - poema Seri (de La Canción de la Tortuga)

The piece is a vague impression of what I heard in a dream. 
The dream came in layers: desert, lines, and song.
The dedication of the piece reads "to the waterless lands". 
However, it is also respectfully dedicated to the Seri people (Sonora, México), who live on the border between the driest desert and the sea.
--
Esta obra es una vaga impresión de lo que escuché en un sueño; éste llegó a mí en capas: desierto, líneas y canción. La dedicatoria dice "a las tierras sin agua". Sin embargo, también está respetuosamente dedicada al pueblo Seri (Sonora, México) que vive en la frontera entre el desierto más árido y el Mar de Cortés.

-----
*"In my walk through the desert
I will raise my gaze to the horizon
my hand touches the sky
the wonderful turtles come towards me"

                                        - Seri poem (from Turtle Song)*


Work for chamber orchestra + off-stage solo mezzo-soprano and English horn.
Performed February 4, 2016, by the Northwestern Contemporary Music Ensemble (CME) at Galvin Hall, Northwestern University.
Conductor: Vincent Povaszáy 
Soprano: Harrah Friedlander
English horn: Katie Salvatore


*Translation mine.

en mi caminar en el desierto (2015) for chamber orchestra

Programas utilizados: 
-Max 7
-Spear 
-Reaper 

Frenesi (2016)

Premiered by Karl Larson at the Rose Recital Hall, Philadelphia, March 2016.

www.karllarsonpiano.com

blinding blizzards, blurring, broken

Pushing Air (for RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gavin Maloney)

Performed on January 6th, 2017 – Galvin Hall, Evanston, IL. 
Lena Vidulich (violin), Audrey Snyder (cello), Shi An Costello (piano).

Like You Mean It

Bandoneon - Francisco César
Clarinete - Jefferson Assis
Violoncelo- Rafaele Maria Andrade

Regência - William Lentz

Retalho (2016)

Peça escrita para a Oficina Internacional de Composição Orquestral durante a IV Bienal de Música Hoje. 
Escrita a partir do poema "Reflexão No. 1", do poeta modernista Murilo Mendes.
Interpretada pela Orquestra Filarmônica da Universidade Federal do Paraná.

Ninguém Sonha Duas Vezes O Mesmo Sonho (2017)

Escrita durante a 35ª Oficina de Música de Curitiba.

Clarinete solo: Elvis Willian

Gravação: LaMuSA/ Antônio Spoladore

Flamboaiã (2018)

Carolina Heredia, composer
Performed by Alarm Will Sound

Live at the Mizzou International Composers Festival, July 29, 2017

Notes from the composer:
In Spanish there are two verbs for the English verb “to be”, one is ser (to be) and the other one is estar (to be). The difference between the two is the quality of permanence: estar is a transitory state, an accidental element of being, while ser is permanent, ex. I am (ser) a human being, I am (estar) tired. The Spanish word esencia (essence) is descriptive of the ser verb form, the true nature of anything, not accidental or illusory (Merrian-Webster).

I find myself thinking about this a lot in times of change. Living in another country demands an immense effort for adaptation, in which one of the dangers -and almost unavoidable stage- is the feeling of losing oneself. Being at a distance with all the elements that made me myself: my culture, my family, my mother language, made me value all the small-things, those moments, places, persons that have now became lucid memories that I jealously treasure. And, aren’t we all just memories? Those instants that we chose to keep at the surface, and even the ones that remain deep inside, hidden, they shape our being, our feelings, our responses, they become our essence.

Conversation, for solo cello (2015)

Maria Kaoutzani

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