for viola quartet

part of the TELEPHONE project based off two works: 1) a visual work and 2) a poem

generously recorded by violas in the park: Devin Moore, Lynn Saq, Lydia Grimes, and Sean Juhl

recorded on canal st

a setting of sappho's poetry for chamber ensemble and soprano

excerpt from "iv. night", sung by Olivia Lerwick, conducted by Molly Turner:

If we imagine the history of art as some kind of Darwinian survival game, Sappho’s poetry stands out as a genetic miracle. Almost no whole organism has survived. Instead, we have a couple dozen pages worth of fragments. Still, that’s extraordinary for a couple thousand years.

Sappho’s poetry has already gone through a natural process of fragmenting (physically through the ripping of pages) and has been re-interpreted over time by way of numerous translations. What we’re left with is an obscured version of the original.

In studying composition we often talk about developing, fragmenting, and expanding ideas. So, rather than obsess over the original-Protozoan-text, we can take this time-shaped art and welcome the work into the 21st century, home of the ambiguous and the modified.

I believe Sappho reveals to us secrets of the timeless female soul like no one else.

And between these small islands of words one can hear music.

a setting of a poem by Lenna Mendoza for string quintet and narrator

written for "synesthesia: poetry+music" a project between the Rice composers and r2: the rice review

performed and recorded at rice memorial chapel

poetry read by Lenna, ensemble conducted by Molly Turner

for alto flute, bass clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

My dad owns a tugboat. It’s kinda slow... 8mph slow. Growing up, I absolutely hated it. But more recently, I’ve been more open to at least being a non-disruptive passenger on it. During Summer 2018, I was in the San Juan Islands near Vancouver with my mom and dad. We island hopped for a few days and met fellow tug-boaters. We were just “puttin’ around” as my dad would say.

Instead of being restless and annoyed as I was as a kid, I immersed myself in this slower and quieter lifestyle, even if just for a few days. And now I really miss that.

So this is sort of about my dad's tugboat, but more importantly, it's about the quiet places that accompany it.

I listened to a lot of Feldman, Ravel, and Takemitsu while writing this.

for violin and cello, scordatura

here i am exploring chemical reactions as well as our reactions to others in music making. one year of pre-med at rice had to go somewhere.

while writing this piece, i listened to the berio sequenzas and boulez’s incredible piece, messagesquisse for seven cellos.

the violin’s second and fourth string are tuned down a 1/2 step and the cello’s first and third string are down 1/2 step.