Postcards from Veneto
Score
For violin, cello, Bb clarinet/bass clarinet and piano
In four movements
I. Quiet Arches
II. Light Mosaic from a Stained Glass
III. Sagra
IV. Isola
Duration-approx. 12-13'
Throughout my childhood, I would spend many of my summers in the region of Veneto, in Northern Italy. There I would visit my relatives and friends and be immersed in a different world and culture. There are many faces, images and landscapes emblazoned in my memory. From the rustic Italian countryside, to the historic and ancient city centers in each town, to the architecture, several hundred years old, vestiges of a time long gone, yet the memory still remains in stone form. Each of these pieces serve as an impression of hazy, black-and-white memories of childhood in Italy. They include the loving faces of my grandmother, aunts and uncles, Isola Della Scala (the town where they lived), and the scenic backdrop of the Italian tableau that contains each of these memories.
Now, many years later, I have had a few chances to revisit Italy and while the towns and people seem to remain unchanged, something does feel changed. Now as an adult, I can still appreciate the beauty of these things, but upon returning to a place after many years,
one finds that the changes in themselves reflect the changes in how we see and experience familiar places. The title of this piece, Postcards from Veneto, is kind of a tongue-in-cheek reference to my childhood memories of Italy. Like a postcard, these memories are vibrant and full of life, yet distant and far away.
The final movement of this piece, Isola, named after Isola Della Scala, is dedicated to the memory of my grandmother. It is a simple and elegant piece of music, much like I remember how she was.
4 Short Scenes for Solo Piano
I began writing these four pieces for Kazuo Murakami during my stay in Conway. That being said, each piece is influenced by different landscapes and places that I have stayed between 2021 and 2022. The first two pieces were inspired by Arkansas's hot and humid summer nights. The third by the autumnal leaves of fall in the Pacific Northwest, and the fourth piece by the dramatic landscapes of Ísafjörður Iceland, a small, cozy town tucked away in the Westfjords of Iceland. Furthermore, each of these four, short, tone poems are meant to evoke a scene or image.
These scenes are inspired by dreams, memories and fantasy and contain musical material aimed at conjuring psychological landscapes from the composer's mind to the listener.
Total duration-approx. 10-11'
Garden of Light
Score
for solo piano
duration-5 minutes
Garden of light was inspired by Japanese gardens and finding stillness
and peace in an otherwise chaotic world. It aims to emulate the beauty of sitting in a beautiful garden in Kyoto, Japan, alone in the music of the trees and one's own mind.
Putting it together
Score and parts
for string quartet
duration 11-12 minutes
Putting it together is a piece about the importance of community and about the struggle of voices aiming to unify themselves. The piece begins with small fragmented and very much isolated musical germs that throughout the course of the piece, strive to come together as one.
Much of the music material is not derived from, but is inspired by taiko drum patterns.
The tapestries of weaving accents and rhythms created by a taiko community sets a back drop for many sections of Putting it together. Community plays a significant role in the taiko community as well as was a driving force behind the writing of this piece.