Listen: https://youtu.be/iL8NKDKDv9k approx. 16'

Full score and parts in PDF format.

Winner of the 2020 Modern Music Foundation Robert Avalon International Competition for Composers, Suite Analogique is an original brass quintet in four analogous movements; each pair of movements are built on the same thematic material, but treated in an opposite approach. Approximately 15 minutes long. I. Work: 2. Play:: 3. Retreat: 4. Chase

For clarinet, horn, and cello. approx. 5'20".

1. Rojo
2. Azul
3. Morada Amorada is a Spanish portmanteau of the word "amor" ("love") and "morada" (the feminine adjective for "purple"). The piece is written in three distinct sections that feature each member of the Trio Enchantment. It begins with "Rojo," which features the group's clarinetist and resident ginger, Dr. Madelyn Moore. The second section is "Azul," a contrasting beautiful and sorrowful ("blue") melody led by cellist Dr. Hyerim Mapp. Rojo and Azul combine to create "Morada," the final energetic and heroic section of the piece starring the horn. Amorada was written for hornist Nancy Joy, who is famous for her love of the color purple.

for flute and clarinet. approx. 11". Listen: https://youtu.be/wqZTXlW_Yp4?si=7yBL-olvUWbKxiqV&t=1778

White Sands was commissioned by the Violetta Duo as part of a project of new music inspired by National Parks. Promoted from a National Monument in 2019, Whites Sands is one of the newest National Parks in the U.S. and is located in Southeastern New Mexico, surrounded by the San Andres Mountains. I. "Dunes" uses extended techniques to experess the alien sensation one experiences while in Whites Sands National Park. It features otherworldly dunes of pure white gypsum, which is cool to the touch, even in the heat of New Mexcian summer. II. "Critters" depicts that the fauna (lizards, hares, insects, etc.) that thrives in White Sands despite its unforgiving terrain. Most animals life in the park has evolved to be white as a defense mechanism to blend into the landscape. As such, I wrote this movement using -- nearly -- only the white keys of the piano. III. On full moon nights in the summers, the park stays open late to allow visitors to view the celestial light. In May 2022, I visited it during a rare blood moon, which is when the earth's shadow tints the moon's glow. This movement portrays the haunting red-orange lunar glow on the pale white sand dunes and the feeling of necromancy that it conjurs. IV. One of the best things you can do at White Sands is go sledding! The gypsum sand not only looks like snow, but it's pretty good for sliding down too. The park is monochromatic and repetitive in a spectacular way; and as such, I indulged my minimalist predilictions and wrote the movement with unceasing, energetic descending quintuplets, capturing the exuberance of sledding down the dunes at White Sands.

for mezzo-soprano, flugelhorn, cello, and percussion approx. 9'30"

Listen: https://youtu.be/kVpIHly9cnI?si=HX6PBwXConcoa0iP

Celestial Fury is a piece that is simultaneously surrealist and absurdist about the moon taking vengefully destroying the earth. Though not intentional, I believe it's likely that for me, the moon subconsciously stands in for climate change. It begins with a haunting introduction of the moon's plot, followed by a fast, intense, and dissonant recounting of the violence the ensued. A third section is a lament for the earth, featuring improvised lines in the 􀀢ugelhorn and cello. The piece closes with the return of the opening material as the earth disappears into the void.

for string quartet.

The Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Zapatista Army of National Liberation) is an armed revolutionary group centered in Chiapas, Mexico that formed on New Year's Day 1994, coinciding with the implementation of and in reaction to the globalizing neoliberal capitalist agenda of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that economically oppresses all lower-class workers and especially the indigenous peasants of southern Mexico. Since the initial twelve days of conflict with the Mexican Army, the Zapatistas have not resorted to violence again despite themselves being attacked. Instead, they have maintained their municipalities, called “Juntas,” independent of Mexican control by garnering global support for their cause through the Internet, popular culture, and sympathetic foreign political activists. Each movement of this piece reflects some aspect of Zapatista history, culture, or values.

for Chamber Orchestra approx. 4'30" Listen: https://on.soundcloud.com/OfzZUotKNi1U5D0YqC

Full score and parts in PDF format.

Commissioned by the Lirica Chamber Orchestra. Dodoi was written when I lived and worked as a volunteer at a foster home in Malaysia for one year from 2009-2010. While I enjoyed much of the time and learned a lot, I also often felt homesick for loved ones, especially my then-girlfriend now-wife, Hannah, who was volunteering in South Africa. Sometimes I wished I could just sleep until the day we were reunited. "Dodoi" is the Malay word for "lullaby." The piece is an attempt to calm my soul down until the end of my service. The melody is slow and simple, while the accompaniment is often rapid and chaotic, showing the dual senses of time I experienced in my year abroad--both a long, slow journey back home, and a fast and exciting adventure abroad.

https://youtu.be/-pj6Rk7Lxno?si=7-_RQdk1X05wt1Dm approx. 23'

Full score and parts in PDF format.

3ɟutures for Trumpet and Orchestra, though not explicitly programmatic, depicts three climate crisis scenarios. The first movement, "ɟuture/pending," is a future based on our current trajectory, where the planet experiences the collapse of our ecosystems, mass extinction, and, eventually, the fall of human civilization. It starts with a warning call sounded by the trumpet in the pedal register, followed by dissonant harmonies and an ominous melody that sound like dark clouds of calamity slowly rolling across the planet. Portents of catastrophe devolve into a destabilized 7/8 meter with unusual 10-measure phrases; dissonant chords, synthetic scales, and rhythmic chaos portray the panic of starvation, drought, war, and natural disasters brought on by runaway climate change. An emergency siren call from the trumpet ends the panic, and the survivors play a lament for the earth. The trumpet tolls a dissonant death knell as the strings and marimba fade into oblivion

The second movement, "ɟuture_lost," is an imagined future had we acted on climate change sooner. In essence, it paints a picture of a green utopia. The melodies and harmonies are simple and clear; the cyclical rhythm, soaring melodies, and minimalist approach to the movement give a sense a floating and tranquility. It is the only movement that follows conventional major tonality, providing a moment of comfort and familiarity in the middle of the piece. However, there is always a bittersweet undercurrent of dissonance as this is a future we can never have.

"ɟuture.possible," the third and final movement, is a call to action with high-energy rhythmic drive and heroic melodies. Its modal harmonies, which avoid decisively settling on either major or minor keys, illustrate that neither is all hope lost, nor is anything assured. The melodies tend toward the pentatonic scale, which is the most universal pitch set, just as climate change is a global problem. The peak of the piece, played on the piccolo trumpet, sets up the expectation for a heroic major chord, but it is thwarted at the last minute by a deceptive minor cadence. However, moments later, the trumpet returns once again, saving the orchestra from the brink of disaster and resolving to the longed-for major resolution. The cadenza recalls the warning sounded at the beginning of the piece, this time with more urgency; then there is one more melancholy strain, reminding us of the catastrophic loss that is at stake with climate change, before returning to the call-to-action theme to bring the piece to its rousing conclusion. It ends bombastically on an unsettled chord, symbolic of the unfinished work we have to do to save the environment and stop the climate crisis.

for Trumpet and Wind Ensemble. Grade V. approx. 10". Listen: https://youtu.be/lo9smidbWtM?si=BJkt_Xx-3gqeBfxu

Full score and parts in PDF format.

Organ Mountain Fantasia was written in 2022 for the New Mexico State University Wind Symphony and its director, Dr. Michael Mapp. Though not directly depicting them, it was inspired by many long winter hikes in the beautiful Organ Mountains, only a few miles from campus. As "fantasia" suggests, it is a stream-of-consciousness form that evolves from two themes -- an off-kilter fanfare that never quite reveals its true, original form, and a lyrical contrasting melody. Though primarily a trumpet concerto, the piece also features the flugelhorn. The soloist often fades into the background, playing descants, while the band/wind ensemble (or piano in case of a reduced performance) plays the melody.

for Concert Band approx. 7'

Full score and parts in PDF format.

Goin' Up the Line is based on borrowed and original work songs from America's slavery roots. Many of the railroads in Amercia were built by slaves and prisoners. This piece begins with three work songs that embody what music may have been sung while they were building them. It then traces the development of the work song into the blues, a musical style and form that began as a release for oppressed African-Americans since the Postbellum Era and has since permeated Western music. The term "goin' up the line" is often heard in old blues tunes and work songs and refers to riding a train (or the underground railroad) from the South to freedom in the North. The hope of liberty and the sweet justice that was won by riding to freedom on the very train that one laid track for is what Goin' Up the Line expresses in the end--freedom prevailing over slavery.