Erlkönig (Schubert)

For flute, viola, and harp.

Premiered by members of the New World Symphony (Grace Browning, Henrik Heide, Tony Parce).  

Two Solitudes (Sean Friar) Premiere Performance

Ave Maria (Franz Biebl)

"Stranger of Kin", inspired by my grandmother's Alzheimer's disease, which progressively worsened over the course of nine years, explores the complex emotions that arise when a loved one experiences memory loss. Our interactions are a mix of love, sadness at her moments of forgetfulness, and frustration when the same questions, like "who are you?", repeat. There are brief moments of joy, too, as she recalls a childhood memory of when she helped raise me like a second mother. But these precious moments are fleeting, and the cycle of confusion and questioning begins anew.  

At the same time, I imagine my grandmother feels fear and disorientation when she doesn't recognize her surroundings or the people around her. It must be a disorienting whirlwind for her, forced to rely on the explanations of a stranger (me) to understand her reality. However, when a fragment of memory returns, there's a bittersweet acceptance for both of us. We accept that the situation is beyond our control, and all we can offer each other is love, sympathy, and cherishing these precious moments while they last. 

The music seeks to capture such complex emotions surrounding my interactions with my grandmother in a cyclical fashion. Each cycle presents the same musical material but each time in a different character, color, and/or textures and eventually is interrupted by a dreamy but abrupt cloud of sound that resets the memory and gives way to a new cycle. In the beginning, solo violin harmonics and bowed vibraphone play the first theme, gradually evolving into fragments of a new, but still related, theme. 

This second theme, inspired by Persian folk tunes, is scattered throughout the piece in fragments, echoing the nostalgia of my grandmother and the memories of her raising me in Iran. It is a tribute to the loving angel who was my grandmother, and only emerges in its entirety halfway through the piece, played by solo violin, and later culminates in a powerful climax in the final cycle. The piece concludes with a variation of the second theme followed by the recurring dream-like sound cloud, marking the end of the cycle.  

~ I would like to dedicate this piece to my grandmother, Tahereh Moeini, who passed away shortly after composing the original mixed-ensemble version of this piece on August 5th, 2024. ~ 

Stranger of Kin for Mixed-Quartet

April 26th, 2015
UCLA Schoenberg Hall

Richard Valitutto, piano
wild Up ensemble, Christopher Rountree, conductor

Toccata for Piano and Chamber Ensemble

lyrics by katya richardson. reading by invisible anatomy 2016.

existing in dimension
like wine stains drowning in fabric.
borrowed tears, muffled laughter.
fifth season
where days don't end and nothing grows.
fifth season
they say there's four
but he lives in one more.
fifth season
of tv shows.


fifth season (sketch 2016)

https://vimeo.com/183369057
film by Yuchi Ma

X i a o B i n g   [ 2 0 1 6 ]

Movements are played without a break.

I. At the Precipice @ 0:00
II. Midnight @ 4:51
III. A Luminous Machine @ 10:04

Performed by John Mietus, Rebecca Lawrence, Molly Tutt, and Michael Fortner

Quartet For Four Double Basses

"Music and Mental Illness"
by Paolo Pietropaolo, 2010

The composer Robert Schumann struggled with mental illness for his entire life. This piece, part radio essay and part musical journey, examines the relationship between music and mental illness.

Music and Mental Illness

Happy Birthday Beethoven

Performed at Aspen Music Festival 2019
Aspen Conducting Academy Orchestra
Piotr Waclawik - Conductor


___________________________________________________^___

A Rube Goldberg Machine, is a machine that achieves trivial tasks through an overly inefficient and convoluted process. 

You may have seen “the marble rolling down a track to topple a domino piece that hits a lighter that lights a candle that burns a thread that releases a lever that...” well, you get the point. And all for what? To have the machine finally add some salt to a dish or perform some other trivial task; a task that clearly could have been achieved in a much more straight-forward manner.
 
It’s the complex and innovative way such a machine works, that gives it its raison d’etre. The machine stops being about the outcome, and instead lets us focus on the way that outcome is achieved. Often, the more elaborate, clever, and creative the machine is, the more we enjoy seeing it do its magic. 

It occurred to me that our music is also kind of a Rube Goldberg Machine. On the surface it appears as if the goal is to move from 
dominant to tonic, or from tension to release. Yet, a cadence on its own is hardly a piece. And so, composers find elaborate, clever, and creative manners to get from tension to release, making the process intentionally inefficient for the sake of that journey. A journey that may include twists and turns, and marbles and levers, 
and... you name it. 
 
This is my machine.

Stranger of Kin for Mixed-Quartet

Sina Karachiani

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