Flutter DRAFT 2021 0419

The title of this piece comes from the intersection of two streets near my home and is a metaphor for the intersections with the people in my life.  Can we find a common humanity to help find solutions?  Can we find a way to talk to each other without dehumanizing each other?  Can we find intersections of love and humanity?

"Cross & Eight" was composed for Exponential Ensemble:    
Flute - Anna Urrey
Oboe - Kemp Jernigan
Clarinet - Pascal Archer
Cello - Caleb van der Swaagh
Piano - Matthew Graybil

Audio Engineering/Videography:
Stuart Breczinski

Video Editing:
Robert O'Connor

Recorded in NYC, February 4th 2022
The DiMenna Center for Classical Music - Cary Hall

Cross & Eight

Reversing Autumn

Based on a third Couperin variation for piano, the piece was expanded and scored for piano and violin.   It is my musical take on John Muir's quote: "I go to the forest to lose my mind and find my soul."  Performed by Lavinia Pavlish (violin) and Markus Kaitila (piano) at The Hit Factory, NYC on July 6, 2025. Maximilien Hein was the Recording and Mixing Engineer.  Special thanks to Ray Lustig for help during the recording session.

Lost in a Landscape

A variation on a theme by Francois Couperin.  It was composed after my time at the European American Musical Alliance in Paris.  It is performed by Markus Kaitila at The Hit Factory, NYC on July 6, 2025.  Maximilien Hein was the Recording and Mixing Engineer on the project. Special thanks to Ray Lustig for help during the recording session.

Couperin Variation No. 1 - Under the Mountain Road

A second variation on a theme by Francois Couperin.  My initial plan was to compose a fugue but the piece soon took on a shape of its own.  It was composed after my time at the European American Musical Alliance in Paris.  It is performed by Markus Kaitila at The Hit Factory, NYC on July 6, 2025.  Maximilien Hein was the Recording and Mixing Engineer.  Special thanks to Ray Lustig for help during the recording session.

Couperin Variation No.2 - Runaway Fugue

A simple and sweet lullaby for our new daughter.

Eden's Lullaby

This is a performance from the April 25th performance at the Juilliard Evening Division Composers Showing.

String Quartet - Antics Mvmt II "Song" - Juilliard Comp Show 052517

A 30 second piece written for my orchestration class.  I was interested in hearing the use of flutter tongue between the flute and clarinet.

Little Gigue - Flute And Clarinet duo

One of a set of variations on a theme by Couperin that I am currently working on - will post more soon...

Variations on a Theme by Couperin - Variation 3, Robert O'Connor piano

Written for Shattered Glass string ensemble and performed at the National Opera Center in New York City, March 31st, 2019 as part of the Composers' Collective concert Rite of String.  This is the first of three pieces that take as their central theme the unique and historical Galapagos Islands.  I recently traveled to the islands and have been thinking a lot about how they’ve become a metaphor for our times.   Since humans made contact with them a few hundred years ago, we have transformed their landscape and animal life which evolved in isolation for millennia.  The more recent effects of climate change have quickened these transformations with great consequences.  Would Darwin even recognize the place that generated such profound understanding of the world and our place in it?  Will these important insights continue to guide us or will they all just disappear?

Darwin and Wolf (When Islands Disappear) - Composers' Collective Concert

Variation on a theme by Couperin (Full Orchestra)

Titled after the wooden structure that supported the roof of Notre Dame Cathedral before the fire.  I visited Notre Dame three times including in the summer of 2016 during my residency at EAMA.  My first visit was as a young student.  This seldom seen structure, with its raw beauty, protected the cathedral for 800 years.

In The Forest Of Notre Dame

Performed at the Composers' Collective concert on June 25th, 2019 at the National Opera Center in NYC featuring violist Chelsea Wimmer and pianist Emely Phelps.

Program Notes: "I wanted to explore the dark warmth of the viola surrounded by the upper and lower registers of the piano while pushing my harmonic language.  I am a programmatic composer, often responding to the experiences and observations of daily life.  With this piece I tapped into my anxiety - in particular the fear and discord that currently permeate our politics and culture.  And although that anxiety opens and closes this piece - at its core is hope."

Sowing Discord for Viola and Piano

I'm a multi-media artist and composer.  I play the Uilleann pipes, piano and tin whistle.  I compose, paint and and make videos.  I am deeply interested and concerned about the state of our planet and the all the living things that depend on it.  I live in New Jersey, can often be found in New York City, and escape to Vermont, where "I go to lose my mind and find my soul," as John Muir so poetically put it.

Robert J. O'Connor

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