"a tired sun" is a reflection on the ambiance at the library on my campus. I tend to visit on sunny days, drawn to the giant windows that overlook the campus green. In the overwhelming heat, I find all of the burdens of the week hovering over my head, but never crashing.

Lyrics by Joe Hayes 
Recording Engineering by Cliff Robbins-Sennewald
Recorded by students at The Hartt School

a tired sun (2021)

Del Sol Quartet performs Woven Linens and Tattered Wool at Connecticut Summerfest 2022.

For more information:
colereyesmusic.com

Woven Linens And Tattered Wool (for string quartet)

Performed by the Princeton Singers, Steven Sametz, conductor, as part of the 2023 LeHigh University Choral Composers Forum.

In The Beginning

Până Când Nu Te Iubeam (Until I Don’t Love You) depicts the narrator's Dor (longing) for a separated loved one. I have recontextualized this Romanian folk song to become a  conversation between the first generation immigrants in a new land and every ancestor that came before. Those who have left feel regret; the homeland reminds them that from its soil their ancestors drew nourishment and strength. Within this soil their ancestors were put to rest. This soil–which they carry within them–will never leave them.
.
English Translation:							        Original Romanian Text:

Until I don't love you                                                                                   Până când nu te iubeam
Yearning, Longing                                                                                                  	Dorule, dorule 
Where I rested, where I slept                                                                 Unde mă culcam, dormeam
Yearning, longing									Dorule, dorule

But now that I love you,                                                                                  Dar acum că te iubesc
I can not find ease                                                                                          Nu pot să mă odihnesc

I left home with haste                                                                                     Ies din casă să mă duc
Now I don't know where to begin                                                                   Nu știu încotro s-apuc

I am freezing as the flames swallow me                                                     Arz, mă frig în mare foc
I wonder why I didn’t wait for you                                                            N'am astâmpăr la un loc  

My poor heart                                                                                                        Săraca inima mea
I can no longer touch you                                                                                Te ating, nu se mai ia

Don’t cry my love, (Little one don’t wet your eyes)                                     Nu plange, iubita mea, 
Don’t cry precious, (Little one don’t cry)                                                            Scumpi nu plange,
Everyone is with you (The soil we tilled your body is comprised)          Toate Lumea este cu tine,
The land lives in you (The land lives on in your blood)                                   Patria traiasca-n tine.

								-text translated by the composer
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Giovanna Spiotti, mezzo feature|Wen Wen Van Der Wende, soprano|Ram Tysoe, tenor| Kelly Gembara, violin| Davis Martin,piano

Până Când Nu Te Iubeam

Music by Xingzimin PAN
Text by Yang CHEN
Performed by South China Normal University
Conducted by Yanhui SU

Text:
等风来 等雨来
我在路上
等明天到来

数悲欢 百千度
星河高悬
即使道远日暮

梦里听见
你离去的脚步
回首已是
寂寂山河满目
	
是谁在云端
种下了一棵树
挂上你的名字
和万千祝福

雨会来 风会来
春日珊珊
守我恩慈满怀

此生铭记
这条漫漫长路

(A Very Rough) English Translation:

Waiting for the wind, waiting for the rain
I'm on my way
Waiting for tomorrow

Counting the sorrows and the joys a thousand times
The river of stars are high
Even when the road is far and the sun is gone

I hear in my dreams
Your footsteps are leaving
When I look back
The world devastated
	
Who planted a tree in the clouds?
With your name on it
and a thousand blessings

The rain will come, the wind will come
Spring will come
I'll be blessed with kindness

I'll remember this long, long road for the rest of my life
This long, long road

PATH 路 - SATB A Cappella - Xingzimin PAN 潘行紫旻 (2021)

Modern Medieval Trio

Quéjase de la suerte

setting of poetry by F. S. Flint

Gina Marie Falk, soprano
Ryan Tolentino, violin

premiered in Greenville, NC on March 18th, 2018

Hallucination

Performed by:
Grace Mittleman, Soprano
Samantha Norman, Alto
Matthew Bridgeman, Tenor
Sawyer Harrington-Verb, Bass
Dawson Atkin, Synthesizer,
CJ Diogaurdi, Sound Design

Pilgrimage

I'm Not On Your Vacation  I. Tourist Season

Thompson Street Opera
February 5 & 6, 2021

these wings are meant to fly (2019)

these wings are meant to fly

for viola and cello, performed by Victor Lowrie and TJ Borden of Mivos Quartet

theme&variations on the concession of bodily autonomy to js bach

Wen Wen Van Der Wende (He/They) 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.

a tired sun (2021)

Wen Wen Van Der Wende

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