This piece explores some of the various, contrasting qualities of swarm behavior – viciousness, unpredictability, ambiguity, agitation, etc. – exhibited through the medium of a large swarm of string instruments.

SWARM (for string orchestra)

Composed and performed by Kate von Bernthal

The Months

February and March (2013)

Cajón (2016) - 2017 ASCAP Morton Gould Awards Finalist
for solo cello - performed by Joshua DeVries, cello.

http://ninashekhar.com/cajon/

Cajón

Cyclotron (2017) by David Biedenbender

Performed by Kevin Sedatole and the Michigan State University Wind Symphony, Wharton Center for the Performing Arts

Program Note:

Cyclotron was commissioned by Kevin Sedatole and the Michigan State University Wind Symphony. A cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator in which charged particles accelerate outwards from the center along a spiral path, using a static magnetic field and accelerated by a rapidly varying (radio frequency) electric field. Cyclotrons serve many purposes, including to create high-energy beams for nuclear physics experiments and in particle therapy to treat cancer. Nuclear physics research began at Michigan State University in 1958, and the National Superconducting Laboratory (NSCL) is one of the world’s flagship nuclear science research facilities. Hundreds of researchers come to MSU each year to take advantage of the NSCL facilities and explore the inner workings of atoms and their role in the universe.

In this piece I use the cyclotron as a launching point for my creative process. I imagined a fictional and playful sonification of the cyclotron and of what happens to particles when they are smashed together at nearly half the speed of light. These violent nuclear collisions tend to cause strange things to happen, and, among other things, at MSU’s cyclotron, the experimental observations of these collisions have led to the discovery of completely new types of nuclei (isotopes). In fact, the infinitesimally small particles that make up atoms generally behave in bizarre—though not totally unexpected—ways (thanks to quantum physics) when compared to our understanding of the visible world. Among many peculiar subatomic phenomena, light particles called photons can behave both like particles and waves and particles can simultaneously be in two different places at once!

The music develops out of a small collection of motifs and gestures, which are layered and transformed over time to try to portray things like time dilation (accelerated particles experience slower time) through acceleration/deceleration and expansion/contraction, particle versus wave-like motion, cyclical and spiraling motion, the Doppler effect to convey speed and direction, and mechanical, machine-like sounds. It is my hope that, in some small way, this music captures the strange and mysterious beauty of the sub-atomic world and that it honors the work and research of the scientists at MSU and their extraordinary machine.

Cyclotron

Music by Matthew Browne
Performed by Alarm Will Sound
Live at the Mizzou International Composers Festival, July 30, 2016

"Writers' Room" aims to evoke the atmosphere of a room full of talented, driven, and sometimes stubborn television writers who are trying to come up with some good material for their next show, which has a very quickly approaching deadline.

The piece, depicting this chaos, is constantly brainstorming, workshopping, revising, squabbling, and panicking. Much like some the more dysfunctional, wild, and entertaining writers' rooms.

Writers' Room

FOOD FIGHT (2017) - Performed by Amy Petrongelli (soprano), Jan Berry Baker (alto saxophone), and Huizi Zhang (piano) at the New Music on the Point Summer Festival on June 16th, 2017.

Text (written by Nina Shekhar):
yellow eggy splatters
on my purple itchy sweater
and my polka-dotted trousers.
chocolate smears on my cheeks,
my hands covered in slimy goo.
and on it goes,
this dirt tea party
with bread crumbs in my hair
throwing food at you
as we enter this glorious food fight.
splashing the tomatoes
flying peas in the air
sugar on the floor
brown rice
throwing all-purpose flour.
pie in the face –
pie in my face?
pie in your face!
oh, what a mess we’ve made,
but before we clean up…
just one more splatter!

http://ninashekhar.com/food-fight/

FOOD FIGHT

Score: https://issuu.com/bretbohman/docs/beacon__2017__-_sinfonietta

Beacon (2017) for sinfonietta was premiered at the Wellesley Composers Conference on July 26, 2017 under the baton of incredible James Baker. Many thanks to the amazing musicians who brought this piece to life. It was an unforgettable experience.

Miranda Cuckson - Violin I
Gabby Diaz - Violin II
Lois Martin - Viola
Joshua Gordon - Cello
Steven Beck - Piano
Peggy Pearson - Oboe
Benjamin Fingland - Clarinet
Adrian Morejon - Bassoon
Patrick Pridemore - Horn
Gareth Flowers - Trumpet
Benjamin Herrington - Trombone
Mike Truesdell and Michael Caterisano - Percussion
Greg Chudzik - Contrabass

Beacon (2017) - for sinfonietta

Live from Midday Music Series, St. Paul's on the Green, Norwalk CT, 2.21.18

Photo by Ryan Scherb

"Phantom Strings" from Stringsongs by Meredith Monk

“Barnstorming” was a bizarre fad of the 1920s, where skilled pilots would use old WWI biplanes to travel around the Midwest, landing in random farms. There they would charge the locals for airplane rides, and perform thrilling airshows. Much like traveling circuses, these barnstormers only stayed in any given place for a short while, and their arrivals were tremendously exciting events for the culturally and technologically reclusive farmer audiences. These airshows were tremendously gripping, but were also excessively dangerous. Some of the stunts they performed were barrel rolls, flips, dives, wing walking (walking on the wings of a moving plane), midair plane transfers, and even playing tennis on the wings of a moving plane. Often these barnstormers were, naturally, injured of killed doing these stunts. The strange and ridiculous juxtaposition of the exciting thrills and tremendous danger is the main impetus for this piece.

The music opens with a terrifying and visceral growl, signifying the engine of the plane starting up. After taking to the air, we are abruptly introduced to some exciting popular ragtime music, soon to be joined by some jarring dissonances. Quickly and with agility, we move from style to style, tempo to tempo, interspersed with exciting flips and stunts. After a return to our ragtime theme joined by several other styles vying for our attention, we finally enter clear skies, and come to a glorious climax. However, this does not last long, as very soon after our plane stalls, and we come crashing down to earth.

I have always been interested, fascinated, and tickled by polystylism. From Ives to Schnittke to Zorn, I believe that the intrinsic humor in the incongruity of it is alone worth pursuing it for. While I have always used such techniques in my music, with this piece I go all out. I was aiming for a ridiculous mix of styles nestled somewhere in between Gershwin, Stravinsky, Mendelssohn, and Carl Stalling.

This work is dedicated to my nephew, Ethan Browne.

Barnstorming Season (CCM Wind Symphony)

Just singing for fun; left in the errors. Time stamps:
0:00 - Only Hope (Switchfoot/Mandy Moore)
3:16 - Twisted Every Way (from Phantom of the Opera)
4:55 - All I Ask of You (Phantom of the Opera)
8:57 - Between the Lines (Tyrone Wells)
11:03 - Please Speak Well of Me (The Weepies)
12:59 - Someone to Watch Over Me (Gershwin)
15:32 - The Last And (John K. Samson) - sorry for totally botching the lyrics on this one

SWARM (for string orchestra)

Matt Browne