Performed on Mar 10, 2019 in Peebles Theatre at Christopher Newport University. Premiere performance.

Tal Grossman, conductor
Sarah Miller, soprano
Grace Newman, flute
Brigid Donahue, oboe
Brenden Kibler, trombone
Joseph Brown, bass clarinet

Vita

some noise is a glitchy ambient piece made with Ableton Live that manipulates many of the default libraries. It’s a piece that tries to explore a dark, noisy, and glitchy aesthetic through chopped vocals, various synthesizers and samples, and unconventional use of a MIDI drumset.

some noise

pajama day is a simple ambient piece made in Reaper featuring the use of rain and thunder samples, and panned synthesizers and piano. I tried to duplicate the aesthetic and nostalgia of spending a rainy day indoors with family as a child, a lazy day spent playing board games, watching television, playing video games with siblings, and ordering delivery pizza.

pajama day

Studio session of Giwani Mvt. I, a piece for solo performer and live electronics.

Zach Myers, piano
Zach Myers, Native flute in C

Giwani is a two-movement piece for solo performer and live electronics. The piece draws on themes of disconnection, assimilation, and forging new identities that I've experienced in my personal life. Giwani means “lost/wandering” in Potawatomi.

This first movement, Jikskotmosiyek (“crickets”), involves the use of a field recording of trees and crickets accompanying an amplified piano with extended techniques, a Native flute with live electronic processing, and glitch music. I envisioned, in some degree of abstraction, the piano representing European tradition, the flute representing Indigenous American tradition, and the chaotic glitch electronics at the end of the movement representing modernity. As the focus of the piece moves from the piano to the flute to the computer, the energy builds from sparse to lyrical to chaotic.

Giwani: I. Blackwhite

This piece was made using FL Studio, Dorico, and Freesound. There were two things I wanted to convey with this piece. The first is the battle between the sweet release of sleep and the impending anxiety of oversleeping, a battle always waged in a nonsensical world with dream logic, accompanied by stress and depression. The second was a particular pictogram formed with the words “I ROT AWAY IN BED” that resembles something between a medieval crest and a pizza pie.

I ROT AWAY IN BED

Short film in the thriller genre for which I was hired to write the score. Composed in Reaper and Ableton Live. Many textural and glitch elements were used to evoke an atmosphere ranging from off-putting to active fight-or-flight distress.

Score finalized August 15, 2020.
Film published September 25, 2020.

View the film at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHcB31pqO-o

"KNOW FEAR" | Short Film Score

Virginia-based electroacoustic composer. Not currently writing. Formerly studying at Christopher Newport.