Written for and performed by the Miyabi Duo (Hugh Millington and Saki Kato) at Wigmore Hall on 4 June 2021. Commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society as part of its 2020/21 RPS Composers Programme.

A work in two movements:
1. bend
2. lullaby for the end/ beginning

in memory of Uncle Charlie

same but different (2021)

I wrote this piece for the fabulous Hinge Ensemble: Dan Van Hassel, guitar; Matt Sharrock, percussion; Philipp Staudlin, sax; Keith Kirchoff, piano.

Seven Sisters, Radiant Sisters

Premiere of "feathered beings" on March 3, 2023 at the University of Chicago's Logan Center for the Arts in Chicago, IL. Commissioned by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition. 

Grossman Ensemble
David Fulmer, conductor

feathered beings for Thirteen Players (2023)

Written for the JACK Quartet at New Music on the Point (NMOP) in June 2023

Sound engineer: Brian Riordan

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“i know the story of a rose.” is part of a series of works inspired by Clarice Lispector’s novella Agua Viva. This work in particular draws its musical nature from the intimate and delicate relationship found in the excerpt below:

“I know the story of a rose. Does it seem strange to you to speak of a rose when I am talking about animals? But it acted in a way that recalls the animal mysteries. Every two days I would buy a rose and place it in water in a vase made specially narrow to hold the long stem of a single flower. Every two days the rose would wilt and I would exchange it for another. Until one certain rose. It was rose-colored without coloring or grafting just naturally of the most vivid rose color. Its beauty expanded the heart by great breadths. It seemed so proud of the turgescence of its wide open corolla and of its own petals that its haughtiness held it almost erect. Because it was not completely erect: with graciousness it bent over its stem which was fine and fragile. An intimate relationship intensely developed between me and the flower: I admired her and she seemed to feel admired. And she became so glorious in her apparition and was observed with such love that days went by and she did not wilt: her corolla remained wide open and swollen, fresh as a newborn flower. She lasted in beauty and life an entire week. Only then did she start to show signs of some fatigue. Then she died. It was with reluctance that I replaced her. And I never forgot her. The strange thing is that my maid asked me once out of the blue: “and that rose?” I didn’t ask which one. I knew. That rose that lived from love given at length was remembered because the woman had seen how I looked at the flower and transmitted to her the waves of my energy. She had blindly intuited that something had gone on between me and the rose. That rose-made me want to call it ‘Jewel of my life;’ because I often give things names-had so much instinct by nature that I and she had been able to live each other profoundly, as only can happen between beast and man.”

"i know the story of a rose." for JACK Quartet (June 2023)

The following inscription, written by the composer, appears at the head of the score:

By the start of the revolution in October 1917, workmasters at the House of Fabergé had completed fifty jeweled eggs for the last of the Russian tsars. Forty-three of the eggs survive (auctioned by the Bolsheviks after the revolution) with the others now lost, or the treasure of thieves. Dazzling in ribbons of guilloche, the intricacy of the eggs’ enamelwork gives to these objects their ability to transfix: greens, purples, reds made brilliant in cloisonné. But how to understand the rules of a world that embeds in eggs the wealth of its kings? How slowly must have gone the work at the jewelers’ desks. And how quickly the changes outside.

Fabergé Investigations is a work in progress: only the first six minutes of the score are currently prepared for performance; the duration of the full piece will equal about half an hour.

This performance given by ensemble recherche on 21 May 2016 in Paine Hall on the campus of Harvard University.

Fabergé Investigations [introduction] (2016) for eight players

As heard on loadbang's 'Monodramas' release on ANALOG Arts.

Island of the Sirens by Eve Beglarian (excerpt)

“Spain possesses joyous songs, jokes, jests … Why then has Spain reserved the most potent songs of blood to lull its children to sleep, those least suited to their delicate sensibilities?” ~Federico García Lorca
So many lullabies found around the world are in fact, creepy, macabre and downright scary. This sweetly forbidding lullaby marries two works, "My Heavenly Garden Flower" (a Persian Lullaby) with another by Federico García Lorca...along with some live and pre-recorded electronics, all created by Jane Rigler (flutes)and Haleh Abghari (voice). This was a live performance on Sept. 30th, 2017, at UCCS in Colorado Springs.

Federico's Sleepless Lullaby

for percussion quartet
performed by University of Washington Percussion Ensemble:
Ed Cuneen
Mason Lynass
David Norgaard
Lynn Park

November 2018

Violent Tender (for percussion quartet)

06.10.2018
Live performance from Église Saint-Salvi, ALBI, France

Viola Torros Project (Albi, Augmentations III - excerpt 2)

United Instruments of Lucilin | Rainy Days Festival, Luxembourg, Neumünster Abbey, 30.11.19

Earthscape I - Watermark

Composer Yiheng Yvonne Wu (b.1981, Taiwan) earned a Ph.D. and M.A in Music from the University of California, San Diego and a B.A. in Music from Yale University. Her compositions have been performed by the La Jolla Symphony conducted by Steven Schick, Arraymusic, Palimpsest, Ensemble SurPlus, Bonnie Whiting, Jessica Aszodi, Carla Rees, Rachel Beetz, and Dustin Donahue, among others. Her music has been featured in the WasteLAnd concert series, New Music on the Bayou Festival, SoundSCAPE Festival, Aspen Music Festival, and Schloss Solitude Summer Academy. She was the winner of the 5th Mivos/Kanter String Quartet Composition Prize. Primary composition teachers have included Katharina Rosenberger, Kathryn Alexander, John Halle, Sophia Serghi, and Steven Takasugi. She is Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Previously, she taught at Beloit College, where she founded and directed the InterArts Ensemble. 

Artwork by Karl Pilato www.karlpilato.com

Violent Tender (for percussion quartet)

yvonnewu

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