My 2020 saxophone quartet Moons of Jupiter, played by Indiana University musicians at Recital Hall. 

Soprano Sax: Jake Simons
Alto Sax: Josh Tzuo
Tenor Sax: Josh Flores
Bari Sax: Wesley Taylor

Full program notes can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riafh83LvA8

Callisto

Ganymede

Europa

Thebe

Amalthea

Adrastea

Metis

My 2020 piece Guitar Sonata No. 1 (Dualities), performed by myself.

“Guitar Sonata No. 1” was written between February and July of 2020, and serves as a reflection on two pairs of opposing ideas. The first movement, “Arrival,” was inspired by the excitement and freedom of spirit I felt as I embarked on a semester abroad in Vienna, Austria. This movement comprises three themes – an emphatic and sweet main theme which is recalled many times over, a sporadic, almost hyperactive B theme, and a cool and serene C theme. The second movement, “Abandoned Corporeality,” aims to reflect the feeling of losing one’s sense of physical form and untethering from the physical world. Cross-string hammer-ons and whirling arpeggios give this movement an otherworldly, ethereal character, which transforms into something more stoic and resolute by the movement’s conclusion. “Just To Be” serves an inverse aesthetic goal to “Abandoned Corporeality,” reflecting the feeling of blissful, playful, and confident groundedness – a serene yet vibrant comfort with the current time and place. This movement also serves as a thorough (yet incomplete) compendium of extended techniques on the classical guitar, with many unique percussive and harmonic timbral features. “Departure” is the counterpart to “Arrival,” and captures what I was feeling at the threshold of the COVID-19 pandemic as I was forced to end my studies in Vienna prematurely. This movement is somber yet full of resolve, with a strong, slow melody bookending dissonant outbursts and luxuriantly sonorous swells.

IV: Departure

III: Just To Be

II: Abandoned Corporeality

I: Arrival

My 2018 piece Navigating Dispositions for four trombones and non-resonant keyboard instrument, performed by IU Jacobs musicians.



The keyboard part is intended to be performed on a non-
resonant electronic keyboard or synthesizer setting, one
which eliminates even the sympathetic vibrations that would
be present in an acoustic keyboard instrument, in order to
cut off all sound instentaneously once a key is no longer
depressed.

Collegiate Works

Navigating Dispositions (2018)

A reading session of my piece Motorola's Razor as part of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music 48 Hours Project, wherein composer's were given two days to write a piece for mixed ensemble following a set prompt.

The digital sonics of our electronic devices are some of the most
utilitarian and economically-crafted sounds one can find - meant to be simple, recognizable, and communicate a basic message. In reflecting on the abductive heuristic of Occam's Razor, and determining how I could apply it to a musical context, what immediately came to mind was the Motorola Razr cell phone of the mid-2000s, both for its potential use in a play on words, and for the tactfulness of its built-in sounds.
Throughout this piece I attempt to emulate, translate, modify and bastardize the sounds of the Motorola Razr, from alarms and vibrations to the famous "At&T Ringtone" that floated in the air of every public space throughout the 2000s and early 2010s. In repurposing these motives for an acoustic context, I've attempted to demonstrate that while these sounds were built tactfully, the inherent complexity of timbre and our sophisticated understanding of it betrays the simplicity of their design.

Instrumentation:
Violin, Viola, Cello, Percussion (triangle, tambourine, glockenspiel, drum kit), Prepared Piano

Anton von Sehrwald

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