music for an ampty room 2

Ambra

2027_C cordes & ensemble

Cobweb Iris - guarded moon

World Premiere, 7.17.25
Jennifer Gersten, violin
Hannah A. Barnes, electronics
Scholes Street Studio, Brooklyn

“Caminante, no hay caminos, hay que caminar.”
—anonymous inscription on a Spanish monastery
“In my beginning is my end.... In my end is my beginning. —T.S. Eliot, “East Coker”
The paths one takes are rarely, if ever, clear and straightforward. clouded winding paths reflects upon the above mantra, which has guided me for several years, as well upon as the circumstances surrounding the composition of the piece and the physical recovery of both myself (before the composition) and my collaborator, Jennifer Gersten. After an injury necessitated a drastic change in how Jennifer played the violin (taking up an improvisation practice with the violin on her lap), creating uncertainty around performance possibilities, I was eager to continue this collaborative project, finding a connection between her situation and my own years of chronic scoliosis-related back pain as a young woman.
Before intensive physical therapy, which led to significant and lasting positive change, I had to adapt and limit certain activities for years as a teenager and young adult. In clouded winding paths, I took an adaptive approach to violin writing, which led to certain discoveries in our collaboration that I would not have found otherwise—wispy harmonic sounds that come from inserting a knitting needle between the strings; or different approaches to overpressure or molto sul tasto bowing that are only possible with the violin positioned horizontally; and so on. As Jennifer was able to return to playing in the “traditional” position, in the finished piece, these adaptive materials are present in the electronics, which augment or contrast with what takes place in the live violin. This adaptive playing also influenced materials and development in the “traditional” position, which is modulated by the filtering and delays within the live electronics.
At the heart of the piece is a complex network of material and textural relationships, which includes polyphony between the solo violin and its fixed electronic counterpart. Materials and structures that are created and used in rigorous manners (including a thirteen-note microtonal tone row) come into contact with messy, unpredictable materials and processes. While some of these paths were determined at the outset, many were illuminated along the compositional process and could not have been anticipated at the origin of the journey.
clouded winding paths, which pays homage to Luigi Nono, was composed for and is dedicated to Jennifer Gersten. It is a cousin to my piece for electric guitar, Negative Capability (2020).
— HAB

Poster/thumbnail design by Jennifer Gersten.
All fixed media recordings by Jennifer Gersten.

clouded winding paths (2025, world premiere)

kmrv a - dear meredith

Hannah A. Barnes (b. 1997) is a Montréal-based composer and conductor. In her compositions, she crafts structured yet dynamic and multi-faceted musical worlds that are characterized by mercurial, off-kilter, and seemingly incompatible materials. These works straddle tension and expression for both performers and listeners. Barnes' main concerns are (re)defining Modernism in the twenty-first century, investigating manifestations of complexity and polyphony, and addressing questions of syntax and semantics within a non-narrative musical language that encompasses both pitch- and noise-based materials.

Barnes completed two degrees in composition from DePaul University (MMus w/Distinction ’21, BMus High Honours ’19). She is currently a DMus student at McGill University studying composition with Prof. Philippe Leroux. She has completed additional studies in conducting at both DePaul with Michael Lewanski, as well as currently at McGill with Prof. Mélanie Léonard. 

Collaboration is central to Barnes’ compositional practice. She has worked closely with myriad musicians, including oboist Kyle Bruckmann, guitarist Jesse Langen, violinist Jennifer Gersten, hornist Tarre Nelson, vocalist Joanna Mieleszko, percussionist Alexandre Garde, pianist Ian Pace, duos Garden Unit and Flannau Duo, and the brass musicians of Ensemble Musikfabrik. Her works have been performed by programs including the DePaul and Dal Niente Summer Residence for New Music (2020), the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (2021), the Yarn/Wire Summer Institute (2022), Omaha Under the Radar Festival (2022), the Darmstadt Summer Courses (2023, 2025), the Musikfabrik Virtual Brass Academy (2025), and Impuls Academy (2025), as well as at various venues in Illinois, California, New York, Florida, Kansas, Western Australia, the United Kingdom, and Québec.

Barnes’ work for oboe and electronics, “Dis/inte/gration” (2019, rev. 2020) was recorded by Kyle Bruckmann and included on his album of rivers, released March 2024. Her debut album, Negative Capability: Works by Hannah A. Barnes, was released in December 2024, and includes performances by Ensemble Dal Niente, Kyle Flens, Jesse Langen, Garden Unit, and DePaul University’s Ensemble 20+. Her work has been acknowledged in the Chicago Reader and “Best of Bandcamp,” selected in calls for scores in the United States, Canada and Austria, played on impulsradio (Graz/Helsinki), and awarded an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer’s Awards honourable mention for her work “five images.”

Hannah founded the "rhythm is image" new music initiative after being struck by the inexplicable and insatiable desire to perform Stockhausen’s Mikrophonie I in 2019. She has a special interest in organizing, conducting, and performing in concerts, focusing on experimental performance practice and advocating for “difficult” music. rhythm is image has performed as parts of concert series and festivals in Chicago, Montréal, Omaha (Nebraska), and Fayetteville (Arkansas).

Hannah is also a devoted educator. She has taught theory and aural skills to high schoolers at the Chicago Music Academy (2022-23) and students at DePaul University (as Lecturer of Music Theory from 2021-23), and McGill University (as Lecturer of Music Theory, 2024). While at McGill, she served as president of Le Vivier InterUniversitaire and the McGill Association of Student Composers, and Vice President of the Music Graduate Student Society. She was a Writing Fellow through the Graduate Writing Centre in 2024-25, where she developed and implemented initiatives to support Schulich School of Music graduate students with their written academic milestones.

Barnes currently lives in Montréal with her terrier Kaylee, and maintains a strong connection to her roots in Chicago. Her compositional practice is fuelled by strong coffee, postmodern literature, and Pilates.