Browse by Individual Instrument

Pieces are listed in order from the smallest to the largest instrumentation. Large orchestral works have been omitted from these lists.



VOICE

Soprano/Mezzo


LOOK DOWN, FAIR MOON (2016)

mezzo-soprano and piano

For Richard Danielpour’s composition seminar at the Curtis Institute of Music

An eerie setting of Walt Whitman’s Civil War-themed poem (1867): "Look down, fair moon, and bathe this scene; Pour softly down night's nimbus floods, on faces ghastly, swollen, purple; On the dead, on their backs, with their arms toss'd wide, Pour down your unstinted nimbus, sacred moon."

2’30



BLUE FOG CITY, 1922 (2014)

soprano trio

For the 2014 Cortona Sessioins for New Music

Inspired by a recurring childhood dream in which I found myself alone at night in a foggy old city with cobblestone streets and gaslamps, but no people or cars. Things were not as they seemed in this city; the buildings appeared to shrink if I approached them, and whenever I reached a door, it was too small for me to enter. Stream-of-consciousness text set with uncanny, experimental jazzy vocal writing.

4’



NARROW ARE THE BROKEN SPINES (2014)

soprano, violin, viola, cello

For the 2014 Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival

A darkly elegant piece inspired by Tim Burton. The images in the text and music evoke musty old books, raspy willows, bones, and porcelain dolls.

7’



TERRIBILIS EST LOCUS ISTE (AWESOME IS THIS PLACE, 2018)

soprano, string quartet, electronics

For the Zorá Quartet

A dreamlike retelling of the Jacob’s Ladder story in Latin. The original Gregorian chant melody for Jacob’s famous words (“Awesome is this place. This is none other than the House of God, and the Gate of Heaven”) frames the piece with echoey, lush writing in the strings. In the center of the work lies the narrative, set in its own new, haunting music.

7’



LE VOYAGE (2013)

soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, alto flute (picc.), bassoon, piano, percussion

For the Pendulum New Music Series, Boulder, Colorado

19th-century Romantic and Symbolist allusions abound in this smoky, absinthe-infused setting of portions of “Le Voyage” from “Les Fleurs du Mal” (The Flowers of Evil) by French Symbolist author Charles Baudelaire (1861). The first section, “La Réalité,” reveals the vanity and pointlessness of the voyage of life, and the second section, “La mort,” offers a dazzling macabre hymn to Death.

11’



EGO REFICIAM VOS (2011)

SSAATTBB CHORUS with optional percussion

For the Wartburg Choir

Latin scripture is set with lush melodies and harmonies in this dramatic work for mixed chorus.

8’



NUNC DIMITTIS ORATORIO (2019)

soloists, chorus, and baroque ensemble

Commissioned by Matthew Glandorf for the Bach Festival of Philadelphia, Choral Arts Philadelphia, and the Bach Collegium

Musical styles inspired by Baroque opera, Broadway, and the choral writing of the Lord of the Rings blend with other contemporary musical idioms in this dramatic narrative work about the Christ Child’s presentation at the temple.

20’



Tenor/Baritone


TARRY ON THE MOONLIT SHORE (2017)

Tenor and piano

For Richard Danielpour’s composition seminar at the Curtis Institute of Music

A lush, romantic setting of a text by Chelsea Komschlies: “Tarry on the moonlit shore a little longer, love; before the charcoal waters fade to red, and floats ashore the broken trail of scarlet thread into the lonely eddies of the bed, where fast it’s tied around the heart who wakes and finds you gone.”

2’



MOON AND MOSS (2019)

TENOR, clarinet, piano

Commissioned by Erinn Komschlies

A dreamlike, wet, writhing forest at night. The singer’s simple text and square rhythms sound like a children’s folk rhyme, but uncanny visual descriptions lend the piece a dark quality, rife with the scent of rich, wet earth and slow decay by fungal bodies. The piano undulates in damp arabesques and gong-like repetitive figures while the clarinet bursts out of the texture with quarter-tone inflected special effects. Faux folk melodies have been left to decay on the forest floor, becoming transformed and strange.

6’



LE VOYAGE (2013)

soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, alto flute (picc.), bassoon, piano, percussion

For the Pendulum New Music Series, Boulder, Colorado

19th-century Romantic and Symbolist allusions abound in this smoky, absinthe-infused setting of portions of “Le Voyage” from “Les Fleurs du Mal” (The Flowers of Evil) by French Symbolist author Charles Baudelaire (1861). The first section, “La Réalité,” reveals the vanity and pointlessness of the voyage of life, and the second section, “La mort,” offers a dazzling macabre hymn to Death.

11’



EGO REFICIAM VOS (2011)

SSAATTBB CHORUS with optional percussion

For the Wartburg Choir

Latin scripture is set with lush melodies and harmonies in this dramatic work for mixed chorus.

8’



NUNC DIMITTIS ORATORIO (2019)

soloists, chorus, and baroque ensemble

Commissioned by Matthew Glandorf for the Bach Festival of Philadelphia, Choral Arts Philadelphia, and the Bach Collegium

Musical styles inspired by Baroque opera, Broadway, and the choral writing of the Lord of the Rings blend with other contemporary musical idioms in this dramatic narrative work about the Christ Child’s presentation at the temple.

20’



Actor/Narrator


CHORUS



WOODWINDS

Flute


THE MERMAID (2015)

SOLO FLUTE

For Edna Jeon

Short piece for solo flute using eerie breathing effects and faux folk melodies to paint a sinister portrait of the Mermaid myth.

3’30



TERATOMA, ODRADEK (2014)

Flute and piano

Commissioned by Geoffrey Wilson

Teratoma /ter·a·to·ma/[Gr. teraton, or monster] n. A tumor made up of different types of tissue, none of which is native to the area in which it occurs. Teratomas have been reported to contain hair, teeth, bone, eyes, and limbs.

Odradek /Od·ra·dek/ At first glance it looks like a flat star-shaped spool for thread, wound with old, broken-off bits of thread, knotted and tangled together. He lurks by turns in the garret, the stairway, the lobbies, the entrance hall. "Well, what's your name?" you ask him. "Odradek," he says. "And where do you live?" "No fixed abode," he says and laughs; but it is only the kind of laughter that has no lungs behind it. (Kafka, "Die Sorge des Hausvaters")

A dramatic, unsettling piece which brings to life these two monsters which should not logically exist. Heavy use of distorted historical idioms, strange playing techniques, and uncanny Victorian macabre.

13’



STEAM (2011)

FLUTE AND CLARINET

For Erinn Komschlies

Four short, whimsical movements inspired by the Steampunk genre tell the story of an eccentric inventor creating a flying machine. Originally written as a fun piece to play with her sister, clarinetist Erinn Komschlies, this piece has become Chelsea Komschlies’ most performed work, played now in numerous countries on at least four continents in various concert series, conventions, and commercial recordings.

9’



BOOK OF SPELLS (2014)

FLUTE AND CLARINET (bass in 3rd mvt.)

Commissioned by The Magic Deuce

A fun, nostalgic piece of four short movements, each representing a different spell. Perfect for Halloween and for children’s concerts (adults will enjoy it, too!).

10’



BOREALIS (2018)

flute, viola, double bass

Commissioned by Emma Resmini

Draws on the natural harmonic series to evoke the mystery and beauty of the northern night sky. Special effects such as rubbing a superball mallet on the double bass, unstable bass harmonics, and singing will playing and unusual fingerings in the flute create an eerily beautiful, howling sound like wind through the mountains.

8’



AEQUOREA (2012)

flute, cello, piano

for the 2012 Fresh Inc Festival

Watery arabesques and lush melodies permeate this eerily beautiful tribute to bioluminescent jellyfish.

8’



WE’RE ALL MAD HERE! (2015)

3 or more high winds and actor/narrator

For Dan Cox

Buckle up for this over-the-top weird and wild cabaret! All sorts of different Lewis Carroll poems have been chopped up, interleaved with each other, and made into a deliciously slithy, mimsy oyster stew. The narrator begins as the Schoolmaster teaching today’s lesson, but it quickly becomes clear he is not quite all there! Written especially for my good friend and fellow composer Dan Cox.

10'



BEYOND MACHINES (2014)

flute (doubling alto), clarinet, bassoon, bari sax

For the 2014 Cortona Sessions for New Music

Uncanny sci-fi fantasyscape drawing a juxtaposition between eerie futuristic machinery-inspired harmonies and the mysterious beauty of outer space. Uses a combination of quarter-tone inflected quasi-spectral harmonic language as well as music inspired by retro-futuristic sci-fi cinema.

9’30



CABINET OF CURIOSITIES (2016-17)

woodwind quintet

For the Curtis Institute of Music; “Automaton” (2017) commissioned by the Rock School for Dance Education

Each of four movements represents a different creature or item from the Cabinet. The use of various historical idioms in a strange, “taxidermied” way captures a Victorian uncanniness with a touch of the macabre, though not without plenty of whimsy. Closes with “Automaton,” a fun movement with memorable melodies written for ballet dancers at the Rock School in Philadelphia.

14’



floe edge (2020)

Pierrot Ensemble (alto flute, clarinet (bass), violin, cello, piano, percussion)

Commissioned by McGill University for Ensemble Paramirabo

Floe edge: the line where ice attached to a land mass meets free-floating sea ice. Full of haunting effects, howling overtones, and synesthetically icy music, this piece hangs in the frozen air and then builds to a lush climax before returning to its icy beginnings. A seamless blend of experimental, textural, microtonal compositional styles and heartfelt, romantic harmonies and melodies.

8’30



LE VOYAGE (2013)

soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, alto flute (picc.), bassoon, piano, percussion

For the Pendulum New Music Series, Boulder, Colorado

19th-century Romantic and Symbolist allusions abound in this smoky, absinthe-infused setting of portions of “Le Voyage” from “Les Fleurs du Mal” (The Flowers of Evil) by French Symbolist author Charles Baudelaire (1861). The first section, “La Réalité,” reveals the vanity and pointlessness of the voyage of life, and the second section, “La mort,” offers a dazzling macabre hymn to Death.

11’



CAUDA PAVONIS (2020)

10 Musicians (woodwinds, strings, percussion)

Commissioned by the National Orchestral Institute + Festival

Musical representation of the resurrection stage Cauda Pavonis (Tail of the Peacock) in ancient alchemy. Quarter-tone Fibonacci chords and other mathematical sequence harmonies blend with elements of Gregorian chant and 19th-century decadence in a piece that is both mind-bending and dripping with romanticism.

8’



hexactinellida (2019)

sinfonietta (16 musicians)

For Alarm Will Sound

A colorful, wacky piece about the strange creature known as the glass sea sponge. At times jazzy, catchy, kitschy, ear-bending, and always over-the-top.

8’



NUNC DIMITTIS ORATORIO (2019)

soloists, chorus, and baroque ensemble

Commissioned by Matthew Glandorf for the Bach Festival of Philadelphia, Choral Arts Philadelphia, and the Bach Collegium

Musical styles inspired by Baroque opera, Broadway, and the choral writing of the Lord of the Rings blend with other contemporary musical idioms in this dramatic narrative work about the Christ Child’s presentation at the temple.

20’



Oboe


WE’RE ALL MAD HERE! (2015)

3 or more high winds and actor/narrator

For Dan Cox

Buckle up for this over-the-top weird and wild cabaret! All sorts of different Lewis Carroll poems have been chopped up, interleaved with each other, and made into a deliciously slithy, mimsy oyster stew. The narrator begins as the Schoolmaster teaching today’s lesson, but it quickly becomes clear he is not quite all there! Written especially for my good friend and fellow composer Dan Cox.

10'



CABINET OF CURIOSITIES (2016-17)

woodwind quintet

For the Curtis Institute of Music; “Automaton” (2017) commissioned by the Rock School for Dance Education

Each of four movements represents a different creature or item from the Cabinet. The use of various historical idioms in a strange, “taxidermied” way captures a Victorian uncanniness with a touch of the macabre, though not without plenty of whimsy. Closes with “Automaton,” a fun movement with memorable melodies written for ballet dancers at the Rock School in Philadelphia.

14’



CAUDA PAVONIS (2020)

10 Musicians (woodwinds, strings, percussion)

Commissioned by the National Orchestral Institute + Festival

Musical representation of the resurrection stage Cauda Pavonis (Tail of the Peacock) in ancient alchemy. Quarter-tone Fibonacci chords and other mathematical sequence harmonies blend with elements of Gregorian chant and 19th-century decadence in a piece that is both mind-bending and dripping with romanticism.

8’



hexactinellida (2019)

sinfonietta (16 musicians)

For Alarm Will Sound

A colorful, wacky piece about the strange creature known as the glass sea sponge. At times jazzy, catchy, kitschy, ear-bending, and always over-the-top.

8’



NUNC DIMITTIS ORATORIO (2019)

soloists, chorus, and baroque ensemble

Commissioned by Matthew Glandorf for the Bach Festival of Philadelphia, Choral Arts Philadelphia, and the Bach Collegium

Musical styles inspired by Baroque opera, Broadway, and the choral writing of the Lord of the Rings blend with other contemporary musical idioms in this dramatic narrative work about the Christ Child’s presentation at the temple.

20’



Clarinet


FANTASY ON FEAR A’ BHÀTA (2013)

SOLO violin or clarinet

For Emma Lloyd

Haunting fantasia on the popular 18th-century Scots Gaelic song Fear a’ Bhàta (The Boatman). Originally written for Scottish violinist Emma Lloyd, this piece went on to be championed by clarinetist Jessica Pollack.

6’



feral / fluid (2019)

bass clarinet duet

Commissioned by the Laissez-Paire (Katie Rice and Shiana Montanari)

Ferrofluid is a mysterious and fascinating colloidal liquid made of nanoscale ferromagnetic particles, originally developed by NASA as a way to draw rocket fuel into a pump in a weightless environment. When exposed to a strong magnet, a pool of ferrofluid will form itself into a gravity-defying mound of characteristic uniform spikes. feral / fluid was inspired by the extra-terrestrial appearance and behavior of this interesting substance and by the steady hum created by the sort of electromagnets that might bring ferrofluid to life.

8’



STEAM (2011)

FLUTE AND CLARINET

For Erinn Komschlies

Four short, whimsical movements inspired by the Steampunk genre tell the story of an eccentric inventor creating a flying machine. Originally written as a fun piece to play with her sister, clarinetist Erinn Komschlies, this piece has become Chelsea Komschlies’ most performed work, played now in numerous countries on at least four continents in various concert series, conventions, and commercial recordings.

9’



BOOK OF SPELLS (2014)

FLUTE AND CLARINET (bass in 3rd mvt.)

Commissioned by The Magic Deuce

A fun, nostalgic piece of four short movements, each representing a different spell. Perfect for Halloween and for children’s concerts (adults will enjoy it, too!).

10’



ALKEMIA (2019)

clarinet, violin, piano

A synesthetic collaboration with Alkemia Perfumes for the Oasi Trio

A 19th-century Symbolist atmosphere blends with more contemporary synesthesia-influenced styles. Each movement is a miniature fantasy world that evokes a different experimental perfume: Deus Ex Machina, Book of Shadows, Center of the Universe, Cyanide, and Stag Moon. (Corresponding scents and images available for performance)

20'



KINTHREL’S LIMPET HARP (2019)

clarinet, violin, piano (lightly prepared)

Commissioned by the Copland House for CULTIVATE 2019 and the Music from Copland House Ensemble

A 19th-century Symbolist atmosphere blends with more contemporary synesthesia-influenced styles. A musical cocktail of sorts with notes of sea glass, driftwood, copper ore, dark and smokey rooms, rust, incense, absinthe, and Art Nouveau arabesques. In special rare moments when just the right elements are combined into an imaginary mental potion, they bubble and react, sparking a vision of something new, in this case, the character Kinthrel, a lonely sea sprite who strums his handmade harp in craggy tidal caves. At moments, the clarinetist strums the piano strings like a harp, and a metal plate placed onto some strings lends the piano a handmade folk-harp quality.

6’30’



MOON AND MOSS (2019)

TENOR, clarinet, piano

Commissioned by Erinn Komschlies

A dreamlike, wet, writhing forest at night. The singer’s simple text and square rhythms sound like a children’s folk rhyme, but uncanny visual descriptions lend the piece a dark quality, rife with the scent of rich, wet earth and slow decay by fungal bodies. The piano undulates in damp arabesques and gong-like repetitive figures while the clarinet bursts out of the texture with quarter-tone inflected special effects. Faux folk melodies have been left to decay on the forest floor, becoming transformed and strange.

6’



WE’RE ALL MAD HERE! (2015)

3 or more high winds and actor/narrator

For Dan Cox

Buckle up for this over-the-top weird and wild cabaret! All sorts of different Lewis Carroll poems have been chopped up, interleaved with each other, and made into a deliciously slithy, mimsy oyster stew. The narrator begins as the Schoolmaster teaching today’s lesson, but it quickly becomes clear he is not quite all there! Written especially for my good friend and fellow composer Dan Cox.

10'



CABINET OF CURIOSITIES (2016-17)

woodwind quintet

For the Curtis Institute of Music; “Automaton” (2017) commissioned by the Rock School for Dance Education

Each of four movements represents a different creature or item from the Cabinet. The use of various historical idioms in a strange, “taxidermied” way captures a Victorian uncanniness with a touch of the macabre, though not without plenty of whimsy. Closes with “Automaton,” a fun movement with memorable melodies written for ballet dancers at the Rock School in Philadelphia.

14’



BEYOND MACHINES (2014)

flute (doubling alto), clarinet, bassoon, bari sax

For the 2014 Cortona Sessions for New Music

Uncanny sci-fi fantasyscape drawing a juxtaposition between eerie futuristic machinery-inspired harmonies and the mysterious beauty of outer space. Uses a combination of quarter-tone inflected quasi-spectral harmonic language as well as music inspired by retro-futuristic sci-fi cinema.

9’30



THE HOUSE FROM THE DREAM (2013)

bass clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, piano

For the 2013 Atlantic Music Festival

A fun and spooky Tim-Burton-inspired piece depicting a too-colorful, too-elaborate, disproportionate Victorian house which is filled with clocks and furniture, yet no one lives there. The ticking and chiming of clocks features throughout, as well as demented carousel music and a touch of Victorian elegance.

8’30



floe edge (2020)

Pierrot Ensemble (alto flute, clarinet (bass), violin, cello, piano, percussion)

Commissioned by McGill University for Ensemble Paramirabo

Floe edge: the line where ice attached to a land mass meets free-floating sea ice. Full of haunting effects, howling overtones, and synesthetically icy music, this piece hangs in the frozen air and then builds to a lush climax before returning to its icy beginnings. A seamless blend of experimental, textural, microtonal compositional styles and heartfelt, romantic harmonies and melodies.

8’30



CAUDA PAVONIS (2020)

10 Musicians (woodwinds, strings, percussion)

Commissioned by the National Orchestral Institute + Festival

Musical representation of the resurrection stage Cauda Pavonis (Tail of the Peacock) in ancient alchemy. Quarter-tone Fibonacci chords and other mathematical sequence harmonies blend with elements of Gregorian chant and 19th-century decadence in a piece that is both mind-bending and dripping with romanticism.

8’



hexactinellida (2019)

sinfonietta (16 musicians)

For Alarm Will Sound

A colorful, wacky piece about the strange creature known as the glass sea sponge. At times jazzy, catchy, kitschy, ear-bending, and always over-the-top.

8’



Bassoon


DRIVING IN THE AIR (2012)

trumpet, bassoon, tenor sax

For the 2012 Fresh Inc Festival

A musical picture of flying cars on a busy airborne highway made of light. The addictive rhythms and melodic figures in this fun piece evoke the frenzied nerves of high-speed traffic mixed with the euphoric freedom of flight.

4’



BEYOND MACHINES (2014)

flute (doubling alto), clarinet, bassoon, bari sax

For the 2014 Cortona Sessions for New Music

Uncanny sci-fi fantasyscape drawing a juxtaposition between eerie futuristic machinery-inspired harmonies and the mysterious beauty of outer space. Uses a combination of quarter-tone inflected quasi-spectral harmonic language as well as music inspired by retro-futuristic sci-fi cinema.

9’30



CABINET OF CURIOSITIES (2016-17)

woodwind quintet

For the Curtis Institute of Music; “Automaton” (2017) commissioned by the Rock School for Dance Education

Each of four movements represents a different creature or item from the Cabinet. The use of various historical idioms in a strange, “taxidermied” way captures a Victorian uncanniness with a touch of the macabre, though not without plenty of whimsy. Closes with “Automaton,” a fun movement with memorable melodies written for ballet dancers at the Rock School in Philadelphia.

14’



LE VOYAGE (2013)

soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, alto flute (picc.), bassoon, piano, percussion

For the Pendulum New Music Series, Boulder, Colorado

19th-century Romantic and Symbolist allusions abound in this smoky, absinthe-infused setting of portions of “Le Voyage” from “Les Fleurs du Mal” (The Flowers of Evil) by French Symbolist author Charles Baudelaire (1861). The first section, “La Réalité,” reveals the vanity and pointlessness of the voyage of life, and the second section, “La mort,” offers a dazzling macabre hymn to Death.

11’



hexactinellida (2019)

sinfonietta (16 musicians)

For Alarm Will Sound

A colorful, wacky piece about the strange creature known as the glass sea sponge. At times jazzy, catchy, kitschy, ear-bending, and always over-the-top.

8’



Saxophone



BRASS

Horn


Trumpet


Trombone


Tuba



STRINGS & HARP

Violin


FANTASY ON FEAR A’ BHÀTA (2013)

SOLO violin or clarinet

For Emma Lloyd

Haunting fantasia on the popular 18th-century Scots Gaelic song Fear a’ Bhàta (The Boatman). Originally written for Scottish violinist Emma Lloyd, this piece went on to be championed by clarinetist Jessica Pollack.

6’



ALKEMIA (2019)

clarinet, violin, piano

A synesthetic collaboration with Alkemia Perfumes for the Oasi Trio

A 19th-century Symbolist atmosphere blends with more contemporary synesthesia-influenced styles. Each movement is a miniature fantasy world that evokes a different experimental perfume: Deus Ex Machina, Book of Shadows, Center of the Universe, Cyanide, and Stag Moon. (Corresponding scents and images available for performance)

20'



KINTHREL’S LIMPET HARP (2019)

clarinet, violin, piano (lightly prepared)

Commissioned by the Copland House for CULTIVATE 2019 and the Music from Copland House Ensemble

A 19th-century Symbolist atmosphere blends with more contemporary synesthesia-influenced styles. A musical cocktail of sorts with notes of sea glass, driftwood, copper ore, dark and smokey rooms, rust, incense, absinthe, and Art Nouveau arabesques. In special rare moments when just the right elements are combined into an imaginary mental potion, they bubble and react, sparking a vision of something new, in this case, the character Kinthrel, a lonely sea sprite who strums his handmade harp in craggy tidal caves. At moments, the clarinetist strums the piano strings like a harp, and a metal plate placed onto some strings lends the piano a handmade folk-harp quality.

6’30’



LE BASSIN LUMINEUX (The luminous pool, 2017)

violin, cello, piano

For the 2017 Festival des Ecoles d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau

Mysterious portrait of a fantasyscape: a pool of water glows in the bowels of a great stone cathedral. A theme for the luminous water weaves languidly throughout, accompanied by musical representations of stone columns and the strange glowing lifeform’s origins in an ancient sea. French Romantic and Symbolist musical allusions tie the piece to its place of premiere: the famous music academy in the Château de Fontainebleau, France, to where many American composers throughout history once travelled to study with Nadia Boulanger.

10’



NARROW ARE THE BROKEN SPINES (2014)

soprano, violin, viola, cello

For the 2014 Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival

A darkly elegant piece inspired by Tim Burton. The images in the text and music evoke musty old books, raspy willows, bones, and porcelain dolls.

7’



UN FOND DE PAYSAGE TRISTE ET GLACÉ (A SAD AND FROZEN LANDSCAPE, 2015)

string quartet

For the Altius Quartet

At the beginning of his piano prelude Des pas sur la neige, Debussy includes the following performance instruction: “Ce rythme doit avoir la valeur sonore d’un fond de paysage triste et glacé” (“This rhythm must have the sonorous value of a sad and frozen landscape”). This quartet evokes the essence of the prelude’s phrases, conjuring the same images. The emotive quarter-tone sound world is at times mournful and desolate, and at others flushed with the warmth of memory.

14’



TERRIBILIS EST LOCUS ISTE (AWESOME IS THIS PLACE, 2018)

soprano, string quartet, electronics

For the Zorá Quartet

A dreamlike retelling of the Jacob’s Ladder story in Latin. The original Gregorian chant melody for Jacob’s famous words (“Awesome is this place. This is none other than the House of God, and the Gate of Heaven”) frames the piece with echoey, lush writing in the strings. In the center of the work lies the narrative, set in its own new, haunting music.

7’



THE HOUSE FROM THE DREAM (2013)

bass clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, piano

For the 2013 Atlantic Music Festival

A fun and spooky Tim-Burton-inspired piece depicting a too-colorful, too-elaborate, disproportionate Victorian house which is filled with clocks and furniture, yet no one lives there. The ticking and chiming of clocks features throughout, as well as demented carousel music and a touch of Victorian elegance.

8’30



floe edge (2020)

Pierrot Ensemble (alto flute, clarinet (bass), violin, cello, piano, percussion)

Commissioned by McGill University for Ensemble Paramirabo

Floe edge: the line where ice attached to a land mass meets free-floating sea ice. Full of haunting effects, howling overtones, and synesthetically icy music, this piece hangs in the frozen air and then builds to a lush climax before returning to its icy beginnings. A seamless blend of experimental, textural, microtonal compositional styles and heartfelt, romantic harmonies and melodies.

8’30



CAUDA PAVONIS (2020)

10 Musicians (woodwinds, strings, percussion)

Commissioned by the National Orchestral Institute + Festival

Musical representation of the resurrection stage Cauda Pavonis (Tail of the Peacock) in ancient alchemy. Quarter-tone Fibonacci chords and other mathematical sequence harmonies blend with elements of Gregorian chant and 19th-century decadence in a piece that is both mind-bending and dripping with romanticism.

8’



hexactinellida (2019)

sinfonietta (16 musicians)

For Alarm Will Sound

A colorful, wacky piece about the strange creature known as the glass sea sponge. At times jazzy, catchy, kitschy, ear-bending, and always over-the-top.

8’



NUNC DIMITTIS ORATORIO (2019)

soloists, chorus, and baroque ensemble

Commissioned by Matthew Glandorf for the Bach Festival of Philadelphia, Choral Arts Philadelphia, and the Bach Collegium

Musical styles inspired by Baroque opera, Broadway, and the choral writing of the Lord of the Rings blend with other contemporary musical idioms in this dramatic narrative work about the Christ Child’s presentation at the temple.

20’



Viola


BOREALIS (2018)

flute, viola, double bass

Commissioned by Emma Resmini

Draws on the natural harmonic series to evoke the mystery and beauty of the northern night sky. Special effects such as rubbing a superball mallet on the double bass, unstable bass harmonics, and singing will playing and unusual fingerings in the flute create an eerily beautiful, howling sound like wind through the mountains.

8’



NARROW ARE THE BROKEN SPINES (2014)

soprano, violin, viola, cello

For the 2014 Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival

A darkly elegant piece inspired by Tim Burton. The images in the text and music evoke musty old books, raspy willows, bones, and porcelain dolls.

7’



UN FOND DE PAYSAGE TRISTE ET GLACÉ (A SAD AND FROZEN LANDSCAPE, 2015)

string quartet

For the Altius Quartet

At the beginning of his piano prelude Des pas sur la neige, Debussy includes the following performance instruction: “Ce rythme doit avoir la valeur sonore d’un fond de paysage triste et glacé” (“This rhythm must have the sonorous value of a sad and frozen landscape”). This quartet evokes the essence of the prelude’s phrases, conjuring the same images. The emotive quarter-tone sound world is at times mournful and desolate, and at others flushed with the warmth of memory.

14’



TERRIBILIS EST LOCUS ISTE (AWESOME IS THIS PLACE, 2018)

soprano, string quartet, electronics

For the Zorá Quartet

A dreamlike retelling of the Jacob’s Ladder story in Latin. The original Gregorian chant melody for Jacob’s famous words (“Awesome is this place. This is none other than the House of God, and the Gate of Heaven”) frames the piece with echoey, lush writing in the strings. In the center of the work lies the narrative, set in its own new, haunting music.

7’



CAUDA PAVONIS (2020)

10 Musicians (woodwinds, strings, percussion)

Commissioned by the National Orchestral Institute + Festival

Musical representation of the resurrection stage Cauda Pavonis (Tail of the Peacock) in ancient alchemy. Quarter-tone Fibonacci chords and other mathematical sequence harmonies blend with elements of Gregorian chant and 19th-century decadence in a piece that is both mind-bending and dripping with romanticism.

8’



hexactinellida (2019)

sinfonietta (16 musicians)

For Alarm Will Sound

A colorful, wacky piece about the strange creature known as the glass sea sponge. At times jazzy, catchy, kitschy, ear-bending, and always over-the-top.

8’



NUNC DIMITTIS ORATORIO (2019)

soloists, chorus, and baroque ensemble

Commissioned by Matthew Glandorf for the Bach Festival of Philadelphia, Choral Arts Philadelphia, and the Bach Collegium

Musical styles inspired by Baroque opera, Broadway, and the choral writing of the Lord of the Rings blend with other contemporary musical idioms in this dramatic narrative work about the Christ Child’s presentation at the temple.

20’



Cello


AEQUOREA (2012)

flute, cello, piano

for the 2012 Fresh Inc Festival

Watery arabesques and lush melodies permeate this eerily beautiful tribute to bioluminescent jellyfish.

8’



LE BASSIN LUMINEUX (The luminous pool, 2017)

violin, cello, piano

For the 2017 Festival des Ecoles d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau

Mysterious portrait of a fantasyscape: a pool of water glows in the bowels of a great stone cathedral. A theme for the luminous water weaves languidly throughout, accompanied by musical representations of stone columns and the strange glowing lifeform’s origins in an ancient sea. French Romantic and Symbolist musical allusions tie the piece to its place of premiere: the famous music academy in the Château de Fontainebleau, France, to where many American composers throughout history once travelled to study with Nadia Boulanger.

10’



NARROW ARE THE BROKEN SPINES (2014)

soprano, violin, viola, cello

For the 2014 Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival

A darkly elegant piece inspired by Tim Burton. The images in the text and music evoke musty old books, raspy willows, bones, and porcelain dolls.

7’



UN FOND DE PAYSAGE TRISTE ET GLACÉ (A SAD AND FROZEN LANDSCAPE, 2015)

string quartet

For the Altius Quartet

At the beginning of his piano prelude Des pas sur la neige, Debussy includes the following performance instruction: “Ce rythme doit avoir la valeur sonore d’un fond de paysage triste et glacé” (“This rhythm must have the sonorous value of a sad and frozen landscape”). This quartet evokes the essence of the prelude’s phrases, conjuring the same images. The emotive quarter-tone sound world is at times mournful and desolate, and at others flushed with the warmth of memory.

14’



TERRIBILIS EST LOCUS ISTE (AWESOME IS THIS PLACE, 2018)

soprano, string quartet, electronics

For the Zorá Quartet

A dreamlike retelling of the Jacob’s Ladder story in Latin. The original Gregorian chant melody for Jacob’s famous words (“Awesome is this place. This is none other than the House of God, and the Gate of Heaven”) frames the piece with echoey, lush writing in the strings. In the center of the work lies the narrative, set in its own new, haunting music.

7’



THE HOUSE FROM THE DREAM (2013)

bass clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, piano

For the 2013 Atlantic Music Festival

A fun and spooky Tim-Burton-inspired piece depicting a too-colorful, too-elaborate, disproportionate Victorian house which is filled with clocks and furniture, yet no one lives there. The ticking and chiming of clocks features throughout, as well as demented carousel music and a touch of Victorian elegance.

8’30



floe edge (2020)

Pierrot Ensemble (alto flute, clarinet (bass), violin, cello, piano, percussion)

Commissioned by McGill University for Ensemble Paramirabo

Floe edge: the line where ice attached to a land mass meets free-floating sea ice. Full of haunting effects, howling overtones, and synesthetically icy music, this piece hangs in the frozen air and then builds to a lush climax before returning to its icy beginnings. A seamless blend of experimental, textural, microtonal compositional styles and heartfelt, romantic harmonies and melodies.

8’30



CAUDA PAVONIS (2020)

10 Musicians (woodwinds, strings, percussion)

Commissioned by the National Orchestral Institute + Festival

Musical representation of the resurrection stage Cauda Pavonis (Tail of the Peacock) in ancient alchemy. Quarter-tone Fibonacci chords and other mathematical sequence harmonies blend with elements of Gregorian chant and 19th-century decadence in a piece that is both mind-bending and dripping with romanticism.

8’



hexactinellida (2019)

sinfonietta (16 musicians)

For Alarm Will Sound

A colorful, wacky piece about the strange creature known as the glass sea sponge. At times jazzy, catchy, kitschy, ear-bending, and always over-the-top.

8’



NUNC DIMITTIS ORATORIO (2019)

soloists, chorus, and baroque ensemble

Commissioned by Matthew Glandorf for the Bach Festival of Philadelphia, Choral Arts Philadelphia, and the Bach Collegium

Musical styles inspired by Baroque opera, Broadway, and the choral writing of the Lord of the Rings blend with other contemporary musical idioms in this dramatic narrative work about the Christ Child’s presentation at the temple.

20’



Contrabass


HARP



KEYBOARDS

Piano


LES FANTASMES D’UN ENFANT (The fantasies of a child, 2014)

solo piano

For Geoffrey Wilson

Whimsical three-movement work telling a narrative story, inspired by my own childhood fancies. In the first movement, “l’horloge dans le couloir” (The Clock in the Corridor), the child is both captivated and frightened by an old grandfather clock. This is a model composition, bar-for-bar, on Debussy’s “Des pas sur la neige,” with the music transformed to evoke the old clock. In the second movement, “le rêve,” (The Dream), the clock and other creatures come alive in wonderful, frightening dreams. In the final movement, “To Sea, to Sail!” the child wakes and runs outside for a day of play and make-believe.

14’



BIRTH OF A NEBULA (2012)

SOLO PIANO

Commissioned by Jessica Ryan

This piece highlights the contrast between the foreboding power of an ancient star and the ethereal nebula which it becomes. Alluring melodies in a tonal idiom.

9’30



TERATOMA, ODRADEK (2014)

Flute and piano

Commissioned by Geoffrey Wilson

Teratoma /ter·a·to·ma/[Gr. teraton, or monster] n. A tumor made up of different types of tissue, none of which is native to the area in which it occurs. Teratomas have been reported to contain hair, teeth, bone, eyes, and limbs.

Odradek /Od·ra·dek/ At first glance it looks like a flat star-shaped spool for thread, wound with old, broken-off bits of thread, knotted and tangled together. He lurks by turns in the garret, the stairway, the lobbies, the entrance hall. "Well, what's your name?" you ask him. "Odradek," he says. "And where do you live?" "No fixed abode," he says and laughs; but it is only the kind of laughter that has no lungs behind it. (Kafka, "Die Sorge des Hausvaters")

A dramatic, unsettling piece which brings to life these two monsters which should not logically exist. Heavy use of distorted historical idioms, strange playing techniques, and uncanny Victorian macabre.

13’



LOOK DOWN, FAIR MOON (2016)

mezzo-soprano and piano

For Richard Danielpour’s composition seminar at the Curtis Institute of Music

An eerie setting of Walt Whitman’s Civil War poem: Look down, fair moon, and bathe this scene; Pour softly down night's nimbus floods, on faces ghast- ly, swollen, purple; On the dead, on their backs, with their arms toss'd wide, Pour down your unstinted nimbus, sacred moon.

2’30



TARRY ON THE MOONLIT SHORE (2017)

Tenor and piano

For Richard Danielpour’s composition seminar at the Curtis Institute of Music

A lush, romantic setting of a text by Chelsea Komschlies: “Tarry on the moonlit shore a little longer, love; before the charcoal waters fade to red, and floats ashore the broken trail of scarlet thread into the lonely eddies of the bed, where fast it’s tied around the heart who wakes and finds you gone.”

2’



ALKEMIA (2019)

clarinet, violin, piano

A synesthetic collaboration with Alkemia Perfumes for the Oasi Trio

A 19th-century Symbolist atmosphere blends with more contemporary synesthesia-influenced styles. Each movement is a miniature fantasy world that evokes a different experimental perfume: Deus Ex Machina, Book of Shadows, Center of the Universe, Cyanide, and Stag Moon. (Corresponding scents and images available for performance)

20'



KINTHREL’S LIMPET HARP (2019)

clarinet, violin, piano (lightly prepared)

Commissioned by the Copland House for CULTIVATE 2019 and the Music from Copland House Ensemble

A 19th-century Symbolist atmosphere blends with more contemporary synesthesia-influenced styles. A musical cocktail of sorts with notes of sea glass, driftwood, copper ore, dark and smokey rooms, rust, incense, absinthe, and Art Nouveau arabesques. In special rare moments when just the right elements are combined into an imaginary mental potion, they bubble and react, sparking a vision of something new, in this case, the character Kinthrel, a lonely sea sprite who strums his handmade harp in craggy tidal caves. At moments, the clarinetist strums the piano strings like a harp, and a metal plate placed onto some strings lends the piano a handmade folk-harp quality.

6’30’



MOON AND MOSS (2019)

TENOR, clarinet, piano

Commissioned by Erinn Komschlies

A dreamlike, wet, writhing forest at night. The singer’s simple text and square rhythms sound like a children’s folk rhyme, but uncanny visual descriptions lend the piece a dark quality, rife with the scent of rich, wet earth and slow decay by fungal bodies. The piano undulates in damp arabesques and gong-like repetitive figures while the clarinet bursts out of the texture with quarter-tone inflected special effects. Faux folk melodies have been left to decay on the forest floor, becoming transformed and strange.

6’



AEQUOREA (2012)

flute, cello, piano

for the 2012 Fresh Inc Festival

Watery arabesques and lush melodies permeate this eerily beautiful tribute to bioluminescent jellyfish.

8’



THE HOUSE FROM THE DREAM (2013)

bass clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, piano

For the 2013 Atlantic Music Festival

A fun and spooky Tim-Burton-inspired piece depicting a too-colorful, too-elaborate, disproportionate Victorian house which is filled with clocks and furniture, yet no one lives there. The ticking and chiming of clocks features throughout, as well as demented carousel music and a touch of Victorian elegance.

8’30



floe edge (2020)

Pierrot Ensemble (alto flute, clarinet (bass), violin, cello, piano, percussion)

Commissioned by McGill University for Ensemble Paramirabo

Floe edge: the line where ice attached to a land mass meets free-floating sea ice. Full of haunting effects, howling overtones, and synesthetically icy music, this piece hangs in the frozen air and then builds to a lush climax before returning to its icy beginnings. A seamless blend of experimental, textural, microtonal compositional styles and heartfelt, romantic harmonies and melodies.

8’30



LE VOYAGE (2013)

soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, alto flute (picc.), bassoon, piano, percussion

For the Pendulum New Music Series, Boulder, Colorado

19th-century Romantic and Symbolist allusions abound in this smoky, absinthe-infused setting of portions of “Le Voyage” from “Les Fleurs du Mal” (The Flowers of Evil) by French Symbolist author Charles Baudelaire (1861). The first section, “La Réalité,” reveals the vanity and pointlessness of the voyage of life, and the second section, “La mort,” offers a dazzling macabre hymn to Death.

11’



hexactinellida (2019)

sinfonietta (16 musicians)

For Alarm Will Sound

A colorful, wacky piece about the strange creature known as the glass sea sponge. At times jazzy, catchy, kitschy, ear-bending, and always over-the-top.

8’



Organ



PERCUSSION

Percussion


APPARITION CÉLESTE (2018)

vibraphone and bowed crotales

A Cortona Sessions Distinguished Alumni Commission

A dreamy, mysterious vision frozen in time and filled with French Romantic style jazz harmonies. Inspired by Messiaen.

10’



THE HOUSE FROM THE DREAM (2013)

bass clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, piano

For the 2013 Atlantic Music Festival

A fun and spooky Tim-Burton-inspired piece depicting a too-colorful, too-elaborate, disproportionate Victorian house which is filled with clocks and furniture, yet no one lives there. The ticking and chiming of clocks features throughout, as well as demented carousel music and a touch of Victorian elegance.

8’30



floe edge (2020)

Pierrot Ensemble (alto flute, clarinet (bass), violin, cello, piano, percussion)

Commissioned by McGill University for Ensemble Paramirabo

Floe edge: the line where ice attached to a land mass meets free-floating sea ice. Full of haunting effects, howling overtones, and synesthetically icy music, this piece hangs in the frozen air and then builds to a lush climax before returning to its icy beginnings. A seamless blend of experimental, textural, microtonal compositional styles and heartfelt, romantic harmonies and melodies.

8’30



LE VOYAGE (2013)

soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, alto flute (picc.), bassoon, piano, percussion

For the Pendulum New Music Series, Boulder, Colorado

19th-century Romantic and Symbolist allusions abound in this smoky, absinthe-infused setting of portions of “Le Voyage” from “Les Fleurs du Mal” (The Flowers of Evil) by French Symbolist author Charles Baudelaire (1861). The first section, “La Réalité,” reveals the vanity and pointlessness of the voyage of life, and the second section, “La mort,” offers a dazzling macabre hymn to Death.

11’



CAUDA PAVONIS (2020)

10 Musicians (woodwinds, strings, percussion)

Commissioned by the National Orchestral Institute + Festival

Musical representation of the resurrection stage Cauda Pavonis (Tail of the Peacock) in ancient alchemy. Quarter-tone Fibonacci chords and other mathematical sequence harmonies blend with elements of Gregorian chant and 19th-century decadence in a piece that is both mind-bending and dripping with romanticism.

8’



hexactinellida (2019)

sinfonietta (16 musicians)

For Alarm Will Sound

A colorful, wacky piece about the strange creature known as the glass sea sponge. At times jazzy, catchy, kitschy, ear-bending, and always over-the-top.

8’



EGO REFICIAM VOS (2011)

SSAATTBB CHORUS with optional percussion

For the Wartburg Choir

Latin scripture is set with lush melodies and harmonies in this dramatic work for mixed chorus.

8’



NUNC DIMITTIS ORATORIO (2019)

soloists, chorus, and baroque ensemble

Commissioned by Matthew Glandorf for the Bach Festival of Philadelphia, Choral Arts Philadelphia, and the Bach Collegium

Musical styles inspired by Baroque opera, Broadway, and the choral writing of the Lord of the Rings blend with other contemporary musical idioms in this dramatic narrative work about the Christ Child’s presentation at the temple.

20’



Photo by Kyle Benjamin Turner

Photo by Kyle Benjamin Turner

Photo by Kyle Benjamin Turner

Photo by Kyle Benjamin Turner

Photo by Kyle Benjamin Turner

Photo by Kyle Benjamin Turner