Performed by Shi-An Costello.

For prepared piano (identical preparations to John Cage's Sonatas and Interludes)

Please support the [alloy] album here: https://shiancostello.bandcamp.com/album/alloy-new-works-for-prepared-piano

Again And Again

for solo guitar
Performed by Krystin O'Mara

OBSESSION

for flute and piano
Roberta Michel, flute. Mirna Lekic, piano

Lacquer and Grit

Veil

for wind band
performed by the Brooklyn Wind Symphony, Jeff Ball, conductor

Moth (Brooklyn Wind Symphony)

Performed by Eighth Blackbird and the U.S. Navy Band, Capt. Kenneth Collins, conductor.

Full performance video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHMabYCLKrI

Eighth Blackbird + US Navy Band, Kenneth Collins, conductor

Vital Sines

for wind ensemble

performed by the Texas Tech University Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Sarah McKoin, conductor.

Deciduous (live)

Bich-Van Nguyễn, soprano.
University of the Pacific Wind Ensemble, Vu Nguyen, conductor.

Autumn Triptych - Excerpts

Second Nature: Concerto for Saxophone Quartet

The United States Air Force Band, Col. Don Schofield, conductor. Live performance on March 6, 2024 at the American Bandmasters Association.

Part 1 from "Deep Down (Symphony No. 1)"

Wax and Wire
for clarinet, violin, cello, piano

Performance by the Cantata Profana Ensemble on December 2, 2014 at Princeton University.
Gleb Kanasevich, clarinet
Jacob Ashworth, violin
Hannah Collins, cello
Daniel Schlosberg, piano

This work was composed for CULTIVATE 2014, Copland House’s emerging composers’ institute, and was premiered by the Music from Copland House ensemble at the Merestead estate in Mount Kisco, NY on June 22, 2014.
http://www.coplandhouse.org/composers/cultivate/

Photo: http://www.michaelgard.com/

Wax And Wire

John and Jim - live

Performed by the PRISM Sax Quartet on May 23, 2015 at Symphony Space NYC. [Tim McAllister, soprano; Zach Shemon, alto; Matt Levy, tenor; Taimur Sullivan, baritone]

http://vietcuongmusic.com/prized-possessions
http://www.prismquartet.com/

Prized Possessions: I. Mother's Monster

University of Michigan Concert Band
Courtney Snyder, conductor
February 10, 2016

Moth (University of Michigan Concert Band)

performed by the JACK Quartet

http://vietcuongmusic.com/commitment-bed

Commitment Bed

Diamond Tide for wind band
Performed by the Hill Country Middle School Symphonic Band
Cheryl Floyd, conductor 

http://vietcuongmusic.com/diamond-tide

Diamond Tide (performed by Hill Country Middle School)

Diamond Tide for wind band
Performed by the Wallace Middle School Wind Ensemble
James Malik, conductor

http://vietcuongmusic.com/diamond-tide

Diamond Tide (performed by Wallace Middle School)

for double reed quintet [two oboes, English horn, two bassoons]

The USDA uses the term “extra fancy” to label foods that pass the highest quality standards. For example, the USDA website describes extra fancy apples as “mature but not overripe, clean, fairly well formed, free from decay, internal browning, internal breakdown, soft scald, scab, freezing injury, visible water core, and broken skins.” Since I usually don’t think of apples and mixed nuts as fancy foods (let alone extra fancy foods), I’ve always found the term quite endearing and have always wanted to write a piece that’s discernibly fancy. This piece doesn’t exactly convey the USDA’s pristine connotations of the term, but instead sets some music in motion and then folds in a plethora of double-reed extended techniques to make the once-normal musical ideas sound extra fancy and, more importantly, deliciously strange. 

Extra Fancy was commissioned by James Blachly and the Experiential Orchestra for its Double Reed Madness concert on January 12, 2017 at Roulette in Brooklyn, NY.

Extra Fancy

for chamber winds and choir

"There"
There all the barrel-hoops are knit,
There all the serpent-tails are bit,
There all the gyres converge in one,
There all the planets drop in the Sun.

from Supernatural Songs by William Butler Yeats

Premiere performance at the University of Tennessee at Martin by the UT Martin New Pacer Singers and UT Martin Wind Ensemble, John Oelrich, conductor

Commissioned by UT Martin for their Contemporary Music Festival

There

The second movement of Sound and Smoke for wind band.
Performed on 11-11-11 by the Peabody Wind Ensemble, conducted by Harlan Parker.

Sound and Smoke: II. (avalanche of eyes)

The first movement of Sound and Smoke for wind band.
Performed on 11-11-11 by the Peabody Wind Ensemble, conducted by Harlan Parker.

Sound and Smoke: I. (feudal castle lights)

Zanelle for solo clarinet.
Performed by Gleb Kanasevich. Recorded on Gleb's album Refractions; available for purchase on iTunes and CDBaby.

Zanelle

Written for Trio La Milpa (2010)
http://www.triolamilpa.com/

Suite: I. Little Tango

Suite: II. Gymnopedie

"Well-Groomed" for solo snare drum
Performed by Jeff Stern

Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8wlGGppq0I&feature=emb_title

Recorded at Franklin's Barber Shop in Philadelphia by Four/Ten Media.

Commissioned by Tom Sherwood, Marc Damoulakis, and Charles Settle for the 2019 Modern Snare Drum Competition.

http://vietcuongmusic.com
http://www.sternpercussion.com
http://fourtenmedia.net
https://www.modernsnaredrum.com

Well-Groomed (for solo snare drum)

I. Hydro
II. Wind

Performed by Sandbox Percussion and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Sarah Ioannides, conductor.

Recorded by Drew Schlegel.

Re(new)al - mvts. I & II (full orchestra version)

Commissioned and premiered by the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, Laura Arganbright and Robert Walker oboes.

Video of this performance here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRWutfyY2eo

During the Baroque era the double oboe concerto was somewhat of a genre, especially among Italian composers. Alessandro Marcello wrote two, Antonio Vivaldi wrote four, and Tomaso Albinoni—who seemed really taken by oboe—wrote eight. Over the last few years, I too have grown to adore the instrument. In fact, I’ve become such an admirer of the oboe and other double reed instruments that in 2017 I wrote a piece for double reed sextet called Extra Fancy. The sextet is an exploration of “extra fancy” techniques that these instruments can produce, particularly multiphonics. Multiphonics are produced when the performer uses a technically incorrect fingering to create a distorted, complex sound with two or more pitches. Multiphonics can sound bizarre (if not foul) to some listeners, but I’ve always found them to be enchanting and, for lack of a better term, misunderstood.

Though the pieces don’t share any musical material, I think of Extra(ordinarily) Fancy as a bigger and better sequel to the sextet. While the concerto again explores the melodic potential of various multiphonics, it also works as a whimsical exploration of duality; while one oboist is focused on sounding ordinarily fancy, the other oboist is determined to prove the extra fancy virtues of multiphonics. After a short Vivaldi-esque introduction that establishes the main melodic ideas of the piece, the oboists go at it. They mock each other, squawk at each other, and even talk over each other. The orchestra observes and joins in as the oboists continually bicker back and forth, all culminating in a reconciliation where the once-hesitant oboist learns (and even enthusiastically performs) a few multiphonics alongside the other oboist.

This piece was commissioned in 2019 by the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra and is dedicated to oboists Robert Walker and Laura Arganbright.

Extra(ordinarily) Fancy: Concerto for Two Oboes

Called “alluring” and “wildly inventive” by The New York Times, the music of Viet Cuong (b. 1990) has been performed on six continents by ensembles such as Sō Percussion, Alarm Will Sound, Sandbox Percussion, the PRISM Quartet, JACK Quartet, Albany Symphony, and Jacksonville Symphony in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Midwest Clinic, and International Double Reed Society Conference. Additionally, his work has been featured twice on American Public Radio’s Performance Today and his wind band works have amassed over a hundred performances by wind ensembles worldwide.

Viet Cuong

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