Solo Instrumental Works

Premiered in Fall 2024 at my senior degree recital at The Catholic University of America:

• Sasha Jernakoff, oboe

• Lucy Dunne, piano

Composer Note:

Subterranean Wandering is a work for oboe and grand piano that explores the idea of being lost far underground. The piece begins with oboist offstage and piano playing while the work programmed before Subterranean Wandering is still being disassembled. Here and throughout most of the work, the piano inflexibly establishes the menace of the dark depths. By contrast, the oboe portrays a heroic but uncertain character, one exploring an unfamiliar and unwelcoming environment. The piano's music does not sync up with the oboe's and often clashes harmonically, furthering the feeling of not belonging. The oboe's music seems to become lost in darkness, but after remembering the surface world and gathering courage, it pushes on. Somehow swept along by this heroic spirit, the piano ends with a short but triumphant cadenza. 

Upcoming premiere at the Fall 2025 Carnegie Mellon Composition Studio Concert:

• Evelyn Davenport, piano

Composer Note: 

The carefree main theme of "The Meadow" (based on a returning "G-A-B-D-G" motive) sets a peaceful scene, and while a more alert interlude gives a sense that perhaps not all is right, the following lyric theme moves even further into dreamy calm. Unstable, eerie lines add an ambiguous tint to the mood, but thunderous triplets and a menacing passage spell disaster. From the ensuing wreckage, the opening theme returns, but with a sense of nervousness and forced cheer. The dreamy lyric theme becomes nightmarish, and the following passage seems garish in its triumph. Seeming to crash once more, the movement closes with a fading attempt at the opening theme.

"The Lake" presents elegant, dance-like material, but there is a sense of eerie mystery to the extremely high register, chromatic melodies, and sostenuto-pedal-induced "reverb" effect. The main theme (based on a returning "A-E-Eb" motive) has a wandering, cheerful melancholy and is varied each time it appears. Intervening episodes include a more ominous version of the movement's main theme and a capricious but flowing melody based on the main theme of "The Meadow." The movement closes confidently.

"The Flowers" begins as a set of variations based on "La Folia" and combining material from both "The Meadow" and "The Lake." Strange gestures between variations foreshadows trouble, and the fourth variation seems to take over the piece with its menacing acceleration into catastrophic tremolos. As in "The Meadow," disaster has occurred, but the following extended passage's stoic leisure allows for contemplation and "The Flowers" reaches a serene, comforting sense of peace that closes the sonata. 

Premiered at the Catholic University of America Spring 2023 Baccalaureate Mass. 

Composer Note:

Ideally, a liturgical organ prelude helps to prepare the congregation for mass by setting a contemplative, prayerful tone. Help My Unbelief contemplates this ideal by beginning with dark, murky, and tragic material. It seems that the challenges of the world make peace difficult, but the second half of the prelude shifts miraculously into lyrical, flowing material and closes the piece with wonder and adoration.

2nd and 4th movements premiered in Spring 2024 at the Catholic University of America Composition Department Composition Area Concert.

Composer Note: 

This sonata's fourth movement, “Majestic,” features near-constant arpeggios and a solemn C Minor main theme. A variety of contrasting ideas and emotions eventually crash into dark, menacing material, but the main theme returns triumphantly and the movement closes in C Major.

Premiered in Fall 2024 at my senior degree recital at The Catholic University of America.

Composer Note:

Calm, meditative water is disturbed by a brief rainstorm in Reflecting Pool. The piece follows a compositional rule in which any note played above “Middle C” is mirrored by a note played an equal distance below. Following this rule emphasizes the idea of reflection, as do the stereo panning and tuning (courtesy of the electronic keyboard). I also found that the symmetrical figures created by following this rule led to unusual harmony that gave this piece a unique character. After Reflecting Pool’s rainstorm, the main theme returns distorted and settles back into its original form as peace returns to the water.