prisms and mirrors (2021) for pierrot sextet

I’m fascinated by prismatic musical forms: structures that continuously refract and reflect, kaleidoscopically shifting and evolving but at the same time static and unchanging. I imagine a light shined through a series of crystals and mirrors, shimmering into colorful spectra and bouncing in unexpected directions. Similarly, prisms and mirrors maps a single idea through a series of musical refractions and reflections, a set of continuous variations which is by turns textural, rhythmic, and melodic. To me, this concept of musical form resonates with the beautifully collaborative nature of writing music, in which all ideas are continually refracted throughout the course of notation, interpretation, and performance. prisms and mirrors musically enacts this refraction, with all the fragility, intricacy, and color of a prism refracting light. prisms and mirrors was commissioned by the Boston New Music Initiative as part of their 2020-21 season. It is scored for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, and piano.

Performed December 2021 by Blackbox Ensemble
Leonard Bopp, conductor
Annie Nikunen, flute
Tyler Neidermayer, clarinet
Teagan Faran, violin
Jordan Bartow, cello
JC (Jon Clancy), percussion
Jixue Yang, piano

prisms and mirrors (2021) for pierrot sextet

This recording is from live documentation of Pamela Z's performance on the Vital Vox Festival at Roulette in New York (March 26, 2013). "Badagada" is a piece that has long been in Pamela Z's solo repertoire.  A studio version of it appears on her Starkland CD "A Delay is Better".

This performance uses live sampling and looping of Z's voice through her Max MSP patch on a Mac Book Pro, and the triggering of her voice samples using a gesture activated MIDI controller.

© 1987 Last Letter Music (ASCAP)

Badagada (Pamela Z Live @ Vital Vox Festival NYC)

through depths and shadows - for sinfonietta (2023).

through depths and shadows continues my recent exploration of the relationship between music and the visual arts. through depths and shadows was inspired by Jackson Pollock's fascinating and atypical piece, The Deep, which I saw this summer at the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Unlike many of his athletic and excited “drip paintings,” this one seemed to have a much more measured and slower energy. The painting layers large swaths of colors on the canvas—while also maintaining distinct lines, gestures, and shapes—allowing for the various shades to make their presence known or hidden depending on the other colors present. My experience of this piece was very different from what I usually experience with Pollock; rather than experiencing dynamic and vibrant motion across the painting, I felt like I was continually sucked into the canvas and attempting to find myself within the layers of the “deep.” Looking at this painting became an experience of continual exploration and uncovering, in a way that is analogous to exploring the many layers of one's self. through depths and shadows is not a literal representation of the painting but an abstraction of both Pollock’s materials—his modes of layering, sporadic drips, and gradual unveiling—and my experience of continually searching within the shadings and underlayers. through depths and shadows was written with admiration for the incredible virtuosi of the Grossman Ensemble.

Commissioned by the Grossman Ensemble and the Center for Contemporary Music at the University of Chicago. Premiered December 2023 with the Grossman Ensemble and conductor, Georgia Mills. Recording Engineer, Chris Willis.

through depths and shadows - for sinfonietta

Georgia Spiropoulos • Concert @ Centre Pompidou
Festival Manifeste IRCAM 2015

Harpe : Hélène Breschand

Roll...n'Roll...n'Roll 4 — Texture

Roll...n'Roll...n'Roll 3 — Mobile (Little Toy)

Calando for string quartet (2014) # Ensemble Tag

teethmarks

Piece for prepared solo piano written as a tribute to John Cage, in 2012
The idea was to describe an imaginary sculpture, a big mechanical mobile and its movements. Musical automaton.

Michelle Agnes, piano


Recording and mix Ulrich Schneider

Mobile for solo piano (2013)

progressively smaller TVs

Commissioned and premiered by the Daedalus Quartet at the Penn Sound Collective concert of graduate composers in December 6, 2019.

Min-Young Kim, Mathilda Kaul, violin
Jessica Thompson, viola
Thomas Kraines, cello

I yearn, therefore I am for string quartet is inspired by a Polish poem “a może…” that I wrote in the summer of 2018. The narrative of the text is built on similar sounding words and homophones (może my/możemy/morze/umrzemy) and is about hope for the human survival. The poem inspired the music on multiple levels: (i) on a micro-level, specific pitches and techniques are assigned to specific words and syllables; (ii) on a meso-level, lengths of sections are either directly or inversely proportional to the lengths of verses (iii) finally, on a macro-level, the character of the music expresses the emotional meaning of the text. Although one can read the poem to enhance the listening experience of the music, both the poem and the music can exist as stand-alone works.

6.12.19 - Penn Sound Collective - Rose Recital Hall

I yearn, therefore I am for string quartet (2019)

"lips evaporate" (2019) for Double Bass and Piano. The piece was inspired by a poem written by my wife, Maria Siesky, to me.

Premiered at the University of Miami - Frost School of Music, Gusman Recital Hall (11/19/19).

American Prize in Music Composition Semi-Finalist (2021)
Honorable Mention: Robert Avalon International Competition (2020)
Winner of the UM.SCI Composition Competition - Double Bass(2020)

I yearn, therefore I am for string quartet (2019)

Ania Vu

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