Commissioned and performed by the IU New Music Ensemble directed by David Dzubay and conducted by Andrew Downs. Recording and Engineering by Ben Wesenberg and the IU Audio Engineering Department.

Maujem is a deep exploration into my cultural upbringing and its dissonance in my current life, and an attempt at synthesizing the two emotionally. The title and much of the musical material is drawn from an Afghan proverb that my parents repeated to me many times as a child:

موجیم کی اسودگی ما عدم ما هست
ما زنده بر انیم کی ارام نداریم

We are waves, for our being is in unrest. 
We exist to be in motion

IU NME:
Tierney McClure, flutes
Renae Dishman and Jake Pierson, Clarinets
Lauren Hallonquist, Bassoons
Terrence Perrier, Horn
Daniel Lehmann, Trumpet
Lawson Quisenberry, Trombone
Josh Catanzaro, Piano
Seare Farhat, Live Electronics/Voice
Hannah Newsome and Carl Tafoya, Percussion
Jack Bogard and Bryson Karrer, Violin
Maeve Wheelan, Viola
Jaemin Lee, Cello
Will Kline, Bass
Andrew Downs, Conductor

Maujem (موجیم) for sinfonietta and live electronics

longing is an aviary (2023) for orchestra
 
This work draws its title from Ross Gay’s poem “Because,” which depicts longing with an evocative catalogue of images which are quivering, luminous, and full of motion. I explore this same trembling effect in a series of tightly controlled, virtuosic dances for orchestra which spiral outwards from a single pitch. This music is driven by a kaleidoscopic sense of color, a process of refracting and unwinding, and a momentum which eventually builds into a frenzied, shimmering aviary of birds. longing is an aviary was written for the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, conducted by Tim Weiss in Spring 2023.

Performed April 2023 by the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and conductor Tim Weiss, Symphony Center, Chicago, IL. Mixed and mastered by Marc Alletag.

Special thanks to Jonathan McCormick and Anna Thompson

Image: 'Aviary' by Annie Davidson

longing is an aviary (2023) for orchestra

live at 2640 Space (Baltimore); live recording of the premiere

Performed by, written for, commissioned by Ty Bouque [voice]

more info:
http://timothy-mccormack.com/seated-at-the-throat
http://tybouque.com

[photo credit: Hang Su, @oliver_espace]

Seated at the Throat [2023-24]

for countertenor, two tenors, baritone, and bass.

performed by the illustrious Gallicantus, under the direction of Gabriel Crouch.

monólogo navideño - for low vocal quintet (live performance)

Live electronics with vibrating shells looking at the vitality of eco-anxieties and corporatized blackness fueled by:

"brushes of swiftness of adrenalines,
swirling anxieties,
late night snacks,
burst of laughters/cries,
sweeps of turntables states,
eradication and amplification of blackness,
vibrating collected trophies,
absences of resilience,
sweetness of life,
bent physicalities,
sore braiding fingers."

Porcelains/eco/#stillmagical

seven dreams about my body (2023/24) for sextet
i. dream in which i float on a black sea (for toru takemitsu)
ii. dream in which my body is a flock of birds (for ben johnston) 
iii. wasps’ – nest – dream (for gyorgy ligeti)
iv. dream in which my body is a constellation (for kaija saariaho) 
v. dream in which my body is clockwork (for unsuk chin)
vi. teeth – falling – out – dream (for andrew norman)
vii. dream in which i cannot walk (for anthony cheung)


Performed at University of Chicago Tea Time Series
Justin Weiss, conductor
Paul Novak, flute
Michael Tran, clarinet
Blaise Magniere, violin
Isidora Nojkovic, cello
Winston Choi, piano
John Corkill, percussion

Image: Salvador Dalí, "Archeological Reminiscence of Millet's Angelus"

seven dreams about my body (2023/24) for sextet

Loosely based on a sarabande dance form, and written as an opportunity to practice/explore baroque improvised ornamentation practices on repeated forms. Also inspired by the music of Linda Catlin Smith and Harold Budd. Cover picture is an excerpt from choreography of a baroque sarabande by Raoul-Auger Feuillet, in Beauchamp-Feuillet notation.

Ari Smith - keyboard

Sarabande

odes to the body unsung (2025) for 13 players

I've been thinking a lot recently about music and the body. We react to sound in every single part in our anatomy, from our limbic system to our respiration to our motor system. But when we talk about how our bodies respond to music, we tend to focus on only certain parts – we feel it in our guts, it pulls at our heartstrings, it makes us tap our feet – and ignore others. In this piece, I imagine the music which resonates and activates the “unsung” parts of the body. What would music for the gallbladder, for the eyelashes sound like? Here, I take inspiration from the wonderful poet Sharon Olds, whose odes praise parts of the body that aren’t typical poetic subjects. 
 
“ode to the ligaments of the ankle” is a jagged, raucous folk dance, and “ode to the gallbladder” is a lullaby in warm, pulsing microtonal harmony. “ode to the vertebrae of the spine” reimagines the keyboard percussion instruments as the backbone of a skeleton, and “ode to the eyelashes” unfurls in fluttering wisps. The piece is rendered in a shimmering, dreamlike microtonal language. I invite you to not just listen to this piece, but to feel it resonate in your whole body.

odes to the body unsung was commissioned by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition. It was premiered by the Grossman Ensemble, conducted by Timothy Weiss. 

Performed May 2025 by the Grossman Ensemble conducted by Timothy Weiss
Recorded by Chris Willis

odes to the body unsung is scored for sinfonietta - 1(+picc, alto fl.)1(+e.h.)10.alto sax.1000.2perc.pno.hp.11110


odes to the body unsung (2025) for sinfonietta

(2010)
for piano trio 
played by Nathalie Shaw (vln), Séverine Ballon (vlc) and Lise Baudouin (pno)


Clara Iannotta "Il colore dell'ombra"(2010), for piano trio

All audio in this track is from 12 slide whistles played by 12 small electric blowers. The blowers are programmed to carefully oscillate at a flow rate close to that at which the whistles overblows. These sounds are pretty quiet in real life even though they sometimes sound intense.

No electronics were added and I made minimal adjustments to the original sounds, mostly moving things around a bit.

12 Whistles Playing the Break, for 12 mechanically controlled slidewhistles

Composer, creating narrative in sound, finding stories in between the notes. DMA at Cornell.

https://searefarhat.com/

Maujem (موجیم) for sinfonietta and live electronics

Seare Farhat

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