Premiered June 14th at New Music on the Point, University of Vermont

Performed by Eric Lamb (flute), Kari Boyer (piccolo,flute, alto), Jessica Wooldridge (bassoon), Jay Campbell (cello), and Claire Longendyke (piano).

Movements:
Hollow Haven
Time Vortex
Drunk On Ice
Vacant Lover
Avalanche On Repeat
Stasis

Program Notes
Quite often, I will have dreams in a series as if changing from scene to scene. And more often not, the nonsensical order of these dreams resembles changing the channel of a TV.

Dream Sequence Volume 1 is the first of many cerebral travels translated into music, and it is one of my more memorable unconscious adventures.

Dream Sequence Volume 1

Premiered at the Charlotte New Music Festival on June 27th 2013.
Performers: Erinn Frechette (flute), Patrick McGinty (percussion), Tokomo Deguchi (piano), Ashley Buckley (violin), and Katya Janpoladyan (cello)

Conductor: Steven Kowaleski

Program Notes:
The Crowman is a reoccurring figure in many of my lucid dreams. It appears as a dark silhouette of a large man with the head of a crow. The Crowman is harmless more often than not, simply looming in the corner of my room or at my bedside. However, I associate the Crowman with his few haunting instances of torment and nightmare-like experiences. Visits From The Crowman chronicles one of my more aggressive encounters with this dark, taunting figure.

Visits From The Crowman

Year 22 and a Lonely Piano

Used Assassin's Kit
from the REMNANTS cycle
for Soprano, Mezzo Soprano, Flute, Piano, Viola

Performers: Amy Petrongelli (soprano), Jennifer Beattie (mezzo soprano), Ellyn Butler (flute), Samantha Chestney (viola), Richard Valitutto (piano).

Program Notes:
REMNANTS is a collection of poems/prose written specificallyfor the 2014 session of New Music on the Point. REMNANTS contains ten parts of varying lengths that recount fragments and scraps of memories, delusions, and other experiences that I tried desperately to hold close and recreate to their original raw and beautiful state. However, like the vivd dream that quickly case upon waking up, I am left only with these pieces... these remnants of something much greater.


Text by Steven Kowaleski

Perfectly placed.
And she, the target,
Was none the wiser.
I was too deep to wake up,
And the rain…so loud.

A shattered window is streaked with red,
And I remember only the black.
There is glass in my hand,
And you are nowhere to be found.
The rain, so loud.

Soft lightning flickered to reveal the fatal spot.
An assembly of weapons covered in blood,
An empty cavity, a missing piece,
Taken, with you.
The rain, too loud!

Water flooded the Used Assassin’s Kit,
And the last of you began to dissipate.
Your soul, diluted and running thin.

But still running…


Used Assassin's Kit

Atrophic Hallucinations Volume 1: Dark Daydreams
for Saxophone Quartet

from Cortona Sessions 2014

Dark Daydreams is the first installment of the Atrophic Hallucinations series. These are recollections and stories of much sleep deprivation and the accompanying physical and mental disfunctions. This piece focuses more on the physical symptoms: struggling to to see, struggling to breath, and struggling to stand. And experiencing these symptoms while
trying to go about your day in a Daydream state.

Special Thank to Katie Duncan (alto), Jake Hewitt (sop), Aaron Singleton (bari), and, Sean Bradley (tenor).

Extra Special Thanks to Michael Kirkendoll

Blurring Between
Drowning In Air
Succumbing To Gravity (not featured)


Dark Daydreams (reading sessions)

In November of 2014, I began to notice a persistent and lingering extra sensation in the left side of my body, particularly my face, head and chest. What began as a mysterious tingling quickly turned into burning and cramping, and when aggravated, I suffered severe dizzy spells and fatigue along with mild tremors in my left arm and my left leg.

TRANSIENT CLAW recalls a particular episode of which my body was digging in and fighting itself. I experienced a menagerie of all my symptoms over four incredibly frustrating hours which ultimately resulted in hopsitalization. To this day I do not have definitive diagnosis.

Transient Claw

Between Black and White (for string quartet) 
By Steven Kowaleski

Performed by The JACK Quartet (6/16/2012)

Between Black and White is a set of seven short movements. each movement represents a brief depiction of the feelings associated with a particular shade. Black starts in chaos. Ideas become blurrier and yet less less active and less defined as the movements progress toward Pure Gray. After the blurriest point, the ideas become clearer as the piece moves toward White. 

We do live life in simple Black and White. We exist within many shades of Gray

  I. Black
 II. Faded Black
III. Dark Gray
IV. Pure Gray
V. Warm Gray
VI. Light Gray
VII. White

Between Black and White

Red Mountain (song for mezzo soprano)

Performed by Jennifer Beattie on June 17th, 2012
(piano Edo Frenkel)



Red Mountain

Traversing the Stages of Madness
for Eight Double Basses

Traversing the Stages of Madness explores the various stages one might endure when with a large amount of stress, bouts of depression, or a rapid mental deterioration such a Delirium. The piece changes frequently from active jarring moments to long cloudy, lethargic areas. The constant chafing represents instability, the desperation, and the fear of a poor soul who is truly going MAD.

1. The Haze
2. A Desperate Sigh
3. Anxious Fluctuations
4. Moments of Atrophy
5. Instability
6 The Descent
7. Lethargy
8. An Uprising
9. The Breaking Point
10. Deterioration
11. A Captured Mind


Special Thanks to Robert Black