This is the color of my dreams (2020) 
Rob Moose, violin
Nadia Sirota, viola
Gabriel Cabezas, cello

This Is The Color Of My Dreams

Amphitheater was commissioned by Copland House for its CULTIVATE 2024 emerging composers’ institute. It was premiered by the Music from Copland House ensemble (Moran Katz, clarinet; Pala Garcia, violin; Alexis Pia Gerlach, cello; and Margaret Kampmeier, piano) on June 11, 2024 at Elebash Hall, The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. CULTIVATE 2024 fellowships and commissions were funded by the Amphion Foundation, ArtsWestchester, ASCAP Foundation, BMI Foundation, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, Friends of Copland House, Jandon Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, NewMusicUSA, and New York State Council on the Arts.

Amphitheater (2024) for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

As it grows increasingly apparent that humanity lacks the wherewithal to unify over the existential threat of climate change, my response has been to write music intended to evoke, in the hearts and minds of those who hear it, a comprehension that it is humanity's obligation to act as caretakers, rather than destroyers, of the life that surrounds us. This album includes three orchestral works from my Music for the Earth series.

GAIA’S LAMENT. In the background, music for violin and orchestra was playing for quite a while, but I didn’t quite muster the courage to embark on writing it down until recently. At the time I began to think seriously about writing a concerto for violin, the United Nations was in session and what, if anything, would come out of the climate change discussions was the hot topic of the day. The young activist Greta Thunberg had sailed to the U.S. on a solar powered sailing vessel and having been invited to speak before the assembled members, gave all of the adults in the room the thrashing they well deserved. With all of this going on, somehow a scene from the 1960 film of H.G. Wells “The Time Machine” kept coming to mind – a brief scene where he travels to the far, far distant future to arrive to find a dying earth, a huge red sun suspended on the horizon, and a desolate landscape nearly devoid of life.

It was with this somber vision that I set about writing music, filled with sorrow at what our species is doing to our only home, with little hope that we have the awareness, rationality or willingness to act as we must.

GAIA’S SONG.  A companion work to Gaia’s Lament, this bucolic music was nearing completion when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published its Sixth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2021. While reading the findings of the report was, unsurprisingly, deeply distressing, my vision for the earth which helped inform the writing of the music is the opposite. A vision for humanity that is built on hope rather than the reality of human nature, one where humans come to recognize our responsibilities as caretakers rather than destroyers of the earth and the living creatures with whom we share the planet. This is gentle music, intended to inspire a gentler approach to living.

Whatever anger or despair I feel at the realization that our species will prove, in all likelihood, incapable of taking the necessary actions to stave off environmental catastrophe in the coming decades, I laid those feelings aside when writing this song. Let Gaia sing, not a song of lament, but a song of peace and hope.

SEASON OF RAIN. A symphony in four movements, composed during a mostly rainy season. The music is also a rather somber reflection on the state of the world, as it becomes devastatingly apparent that climate change is a certainty and, at the same time, the rise of populist politics around the world makes it equally certain that humanity will not respond to the alarms.


Gaia's Lament (Andante)

This is the complete version of my settings of Robert Lowell's poetry, for tenor, baritone and 13 players. I have put the score into Sibelius and made a few small changes from the original version, and I hope that the piece might be performed live again in connection with the 50th anniversary of Lowell's death.

WHITE WINTER, BLACK SPRING (revised version)

Symphony No. 10 in G Major - mvmt. 2

Commissioned by Chamber Choir Ireland with funds from the Arts Council / an Chomhairle Ealaíon. The work was premiered at the Pepper Canister Church, Dublin on 1 May 2025 by Chamber Choir Ireland, conducted by Gabriel Crouch.
Recording by Jiggery Pokery Productions.

Programme note:
This piece draws on the words of people who have experienced homelessness in Ireland over the past decade. The text is a collage of direct quotes from interviews and reports — fragments of real lives spoken in their own voices. Rather than telling a single story, the piece allows these individual moments to coexist: small details, memories, feelings of loss, acts of resilience. 

In the context of a programme reflecting on homelessness, identity, and belonging, this work offers space for empathy. These voices may not always be heard in spaces like this, but for a few minutes, they are.

If you feel moved to learn more or to support those affected by homelessness, organisations such as Focus Ireland and Simon Communities offer resources, advocacy, and direct assistance.
https://www.focusireland.ie/
https://www.simon.ie/

gone

Realized using Notion and Studio One featuring Harmonic Subtones Emotional Strings

25-9 Old French a. Pochon - Gavotte

Fallen Heroes part three

String section and horns with solo cello and solo violin

For your love

we walk in the sun in hundreds (2022) for orchestra [READING EXCERPT]

Suites for chamber ensemble consisting of string trio, woodwinds, harp, marimba, and percussion

Suite for Chamber Ensemble No. 8

Composer Alyssa Weinberg uses color, texture and gesture to channel big emotions, creating music that is “quite literally stunning” (Chicago Tribune). She is fascinated with perception and loves to play with form, subverting expectations to create surreal scenarios, often in dreamy, multidisciplinary productions.

Alyssa’s music has been performed by celebrated artists and ensembles around the world, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, as well as Eighth Blackbird, So Percussion, yMusic, and the Aizuri Quartet. She has received commissions and awards from organizations including Chamber Music America, FringeArts and the Pennsylvania Ballet, the Barnes Foundation, and the Curtis Institute of Music.

A dedicated educator, Alyssa currently teaches composition at Peabody Conservatory and Mannes School of Music. She is the Founding Director of the Composers Institute at the Lake George Music Festival, a summer program that centers mentorship and community alongside the craft of composition.

Alyssa holds a PhD in composition from Princeton University, as well as degrees from Vanderbilt University, Manhattan School of Music, and the Curtis Institute of Music.

This Is The Color Of My Dreams

Alyssa Weinberg

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