Once more to the Ocean

Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s posthumous publication La Ciudad de Vapor (The Steam City or City of Steam) is perhaps one of the most eclectic, and representative samples of the author’s inventive, highly descriptive, enveloping style that span several narrative timelines, genres, and worlds. 

The way in which each short story’s narrative is spun in deceptive, unexpected arcs through ephemeral, abstract gestures, and flares, really proved poignant in the composition of this piece, but also in thinking of aesthetics and my musical identity as a whole. 

Performed by Ensemble Dal Niente members:

Katie Schoepflin-Jimoh, clarinets
Matthew Oliphant, horn in F
Ben Melsky, harp
Ammie Brod, viola
Michael Lewanski, conductor

Gannon Concert Hall
DePaul University School of Music
Saturday, July 31, 2021
4:00 PM

This piece was written in the ocassion of Ensemble Dal Niente & DePaul Summer New Music Residency 2021.

La Ciudad De Vapor (2021, performed by Ensemble Dal Niente)

Ekmeles live world premiere recording at the crypt of the Church of the Intercession, New York City on Friday 27 May 2022. 
Editing and mastering: Murat Çolak 

Commissioned by Ekmeles, the piece reimagines the songs, cries, lamentations, incantations, and sighs of M. NourbeSe Philip’s book-length poem Zong!, which is itself a reworking of the 1783 legal transcript of the Gregson vs. Gilbert case that details the drowning of 130 enslaved Africans, having been thrown overboard the British slave ship, Zong, en route to Jamaica.

Voices initially emerge from a meditative chorus of harmonicas, an instrument associated with Afro-diasporic sorrow, uttering fragmented text, and chanting biblical passages that conjure images of bones, tendons, and flesh, whilst classic(al) tunes referencing water interweave the textures from tiny wind-up music boxes.

I am deeply grateful to M. NourbeSe Philip for granting the permission to set their iconic, and groundbreaking text for this commission.

this is but an oration of loss

Master's Project for Columbia Journalism School. Copyright David Newtown. Adviser: Marty Goldensohn.

10 Years of PrEP: Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) PrEP Machine

Christopher Filipowicz, Bass
Josh Quinn, Piano

Mein Herr Und Gott , Lohengrin, R. Wagner

I Met Dennis Wilson Once - from Eat The Document

Premiered on 26 April 2023 by the Explore Ensemble at the Royal College of Music, London.

http://explore-ensemble.com

A Separate Peace (2023)

Commissioned by the Nebraska Music Teachers Association, this piece is for piano and fixed media.

The Mingled, Mingling Threads Of Life, Woven By Warp And Weft

Poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay

The Happenstancers (Toronto, ON) 
Reilly Nelson, soprano
Simon Rivard, conductor

Song of the Prophet-Liar  |  Song of the Sleep-Thief (2024)

Song cycle by Scott Tresham (text by John Clare), composed in 1995 and performed here by tenor Nils Brown with a string orchestra.

Poems of John Clare's Madness

As I stare at my ceiling, cyclic thoughts swirl around like the purposeful patterns and imperfections on the ceiling...

{ This piece is meant to recreate that distinct sensation }

Ceiling Song was written for Gruppetto Trio and was the winner of NEC’s 2019 Honors Ensemble Composition Competition. A special thank you to SooBeen, Yunwen and Evren for bringing this piece to life

Song of the Prophet-Liar | Song of the Sleep-Thief (2024)

matthewricketts

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