Song Of Lost Things

@2016 
Performed by the Briar String Quartet (Matthew Rigby- Violin 1, Navin Gulavita- Violin 2, Georgia Stibbard- Viola, Sage Fuller- Cello) 
Premiered at the Composer's Concert, St Stephen's Church Richmond, Victoria

Recorded at Sing Sing Studios, South Yarra, Victoria
Engineer: Aaron Dobos 

I always heard the phrase ‘The first step is always the hardest’.
Beginnings spark a potential energy, waiting to burst out. The endless possibility and avenues a road can lead is enthralling; blossoming new and dynamic waves. It’s exhilarating, yet restrained, not knowing where the road leads or how it will end.

This piece is my first step.

String Quartet No. 1 - "First"

Performed at Fleece 1.10.2017 by Patrick Lyons & Joel Hands-Otte.

Thanks Sam for recording and Lily for putting on the event!

Southern Bells

Performed and recorded by Oscar Smith. Cover art by Liam Mulligan.

This piece was inspired by hearing many different clocks ticking simultaneously, but not quite in time with each other. It covers some tricky rhythmic concepts such as metric modulation and swing.

Frustrations In Time II

Dedicated to Jasmine Mills, Dr Steven Capaldo and the Sydney University Wind Orchestra.

A hero is engulfed within a force larger than herself.

Rapture

Recorded live at Cary Hall, the diMenna Center, January 17, 2019
1st prize winner of the 2019 NYC songSLAM competition

Chloë Schaaf, mezzo-soprano
Daniel Castellanos, composer and pianist

Text (adapted from a sermon by Henry Scott-Holland (1847-1918)): 
Death is nothing at all. 
I have only slipped away into the next room.

Program Notes:
I'm currently working on a longer song cycle for my mezzo friend, Chloë, but we both wanted to perform a smaller scale version of the work for the 2019 NYC songSLAM festival. While composing this piece to honor the memory of Chloë's mother, who lost her battle with cancer 5 years ago, I thought of my own father whose own life cancer claimed in January of 2012. I specifically had in mind the hazy, bittersweet dreams I had (and still have) of him returning to visit me and my family, then, after some time, telling us he had to leave us again before disappearing.

nothing at all (abbreviated version)

The word “dreamwaking” is one that I came up with to define the state of being that exists early in the morning, when you are somewhere in-between sleep and wakefulness. This magical realm is a place where all things are possible, where you are untethered from reality and can stretch toward new horizons and possibilities. This piece illustrates this sort of transitory state, residing somewhere between improvised and composed, ever shifting and evolving to explore new realms.


Recorded by David Hughes (davidhughespianist.com)

dreamwaking, for solo piano

"they must be steel... the walls we have built keeping us from each other" 

{ this piece is meant to recreate that distinct sensation }

touch me (2019) - for solo piano

dialogues in black and white (2019), for solo piano
Wesley Ducote, piano

Recorded August 2019 in Duncan Recital Hall, Rice University

Image: Ellsworth Kelly, Black Relief II

dialogues in black and white (2019) for solo piano

Do you have a face?
for solo piano
(2019)

University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance - Britton Recital Hall - 10.7.2019
Ari Sussman, piano

Through the filaments,
amongst the shapes before me,
The Ghosts mince and grin.
-Ari Sussman

Do you have a face? - solo piano - (2019)

Performed on May 18, 2018. 

Rufus Müller, tenor

Maeve Schallert, violin
Lily Moerschel, cello
Eva Grunblatt, clarinet/bass clarinet
Gabriela Rosado, flute
Corey Chang, piano
Sam Gohl & Ryan Voell, percussion

Michael Patterson, conductor

Ethan Isaac, master engineer

Notes on the piece:

Back in 2018, I wrote a song cycle based on eight poems of Catullus, an ancient Roman poet. I centered the narrative of my work around the passionate yet hotheaded character presented in many of his poems. In the final movement of this piece, "Miser Catulle, desinas ineptire" (which I'm sharing here), we encounter the character of Catullus just after a fiery break-up with his famed lover, Lesbia. When composing this movement I sought to capture the two conflicting sides of Catullus' character: the one that wants to be tough and hide all feelings, and the one that wants to openly express raw emotion. I thought the words in this poem still resonate with our own present-day society's expectations to ignore our feelings and treat them as a sign of weakness rather than true strength.

Odi Et Amo: Eight Songs Of Catullus - VIII. Miser Catulle, Desinas Ineptire

Australian Composer and Pianist
WINGS - the new single - out Fri 27 June 🪽

String Quartet No. 1 - "First"

Sarah Elise Thompson