Performed by the Hartt Foot in the Door Ensemble, conducted by Britney Alcine.

Apocalypse Sunrise was inspired by a dream where I, a young boy, faced the post-apocalypse using magical streaming-service powers. The piece focuses on a particular scene of the dream: In the back seat of my parents' car, I sped through the desert toward an unknown destination right before the sun rose – the signal that would start the apocalypse. Numbingly calm, I stared out the window, watching as the sun turned the sky a brilliant magenta. – Wen Wen Van Der Wende

Apocalypse Sunrise (2022)

This piece started as a Christmas challenge where I arranged a Christmas song in ten days. I chose "Do You Hear What Hear," but soon realized the arrangement had a life of its own.

with a voice as big as the sea (2020)

Program Notes: veronica was written for a person who has been taking up a lot of mental space within the past year. However, the piece is more of a depiction of persisting attachment issues than an ode to a specific person. The title refers to a small, typically purple, flowering plant that the Romans believed to be a panacea. In recent years, the flower has come to represent healing, recovery, and fidelity, meanings I wanted to warp and recontextualize within the piece.

This recording is from the Hartt 2022 Public Works Concert.

veronica (2021) LIVE @ Public Works

"Moonflower" was inspired by the flowers of the same name that blossom at night and bloom until morning. After frolicking through the forest for the night, three flowers sing a song at sunrise for all creatures that walk in the light. 

Recorded by Modern Medieval

Moonflower (2023)

Object over Body is about my non-linear recovery from emotional abuse. However, to cheer myself up, the piece is programmatic and features the adventures of a despondent flower pot who ruminates on becoming human, grows legs, and learns that it is still powerless to do anything but run. The first movement, “I have no hands,” focuses on the first of these events where the flower pot, fueled solely by confusing and visceral emotions, has yet to grow limbs. The second movement, “growing pains/becoming bone,” is when the flower pot actually begins to develop physical agency. It grows legs and runs around in excitement. In the third movement, “Winded,” emotions catch up to the flower pot and it becomes overwhelmed. 

Premiered by Momenta Quartet at Binghamton University in 2024 and 2025. 

Object over Body: III. Winded

Object over Body: I. I have no hands

Object over Body: II. growing pains/becoming bone

I am lucky to have had a better experience with religion than most queer people. I have seen the way that religion has genuinely brightened people’s lives. Unfortunately, I can’t entirely relate. Hellfire Dreamer is a musical depiction and response to my biggest OCD compulsion; saying the Lord’s Prayer twice or more times every night before falling asleep. The piece contains musical quotes from “Lady of the Harbor,” a tune by Brother Sun that I revolved this compulsion around for nearly a decade.

Performed by Andrea Gilebarto and The Society For New Music 

Hellfire Dreamer (2024)

This piece was written for the Binghamton University Word of Mouth collaboration in 2024. Special thanks to Joseph Heiland for letting me set his poem! 

Music: Wen Wen Van Der Wende
Words: Joseph Heiland 
Recording Engineer: Nicky Radford 
Tenor: Liam Flatley 
Piano: Joseph Kosik
Cello: Nathan Slisher 

Open House (2024)

An arrangement of the Chinese lullaby "Northeastern Cradle Song." SATB version. Performed by the New Jersey Choral Society: Festival Youth Chorus. 

Northeastern Cradle Song (2018)

Wen Wen Van Der Wende (They/He) is a queer, Chinese-American composer, vocalist, and multimedia artist whose music conveys both visceral turmoil and a love for the natural world. A devotee of unconventional beauty, they balance brightly-colored destruction with a grounded sense of sincerity. Recent projects include “a tired sun” for double choir, the purple-splattered, electroacoustic nightmare “veronica,” and Amy’s Third Most Emotionally-Distressed Roommate, an experimental breakup album. Wen Wen is the founder and co-organizer of an LGBT+ concert series hosted at The Hartt School, University of Hartford. When not composing, they like to analyze popular media, crochet ugly sweaters, and converse with their menagerie of adorable, oddly-named plushies.

Wen Wen Van Der Wende

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