Hello, Brown faculty. Below you will find the four works that I'm submitting with my application, along with SoundCloud/Vimeo links, .pdfs, and a few supplemental materials.
​For the first round of listening, I suggest the following listening order/excerpts:
1. please continue - [7:30 - 12:45] (pg. 10 of score - m. 4 of movement III)
2. Atmospheric Entry - [1:10 - 4:15] (mm. 12 - 54)
3. Skyline Through Fog - [0:30 - 3:50] (mm. 6 - 47)
4. 2020 Fall, Threat - [1:35 - 4:45]
1) please continue for soprano, double bass, and electronics - This piece was written for LIGAMENT Duo, and juxtaposes the literature of psychedelic trip reports against the political treatment of those same substances by the American government. All electronics used in the interludes/postlude are derived and appropriated from presidential speeches from the Nixon administration to October 2020. If listening from the beginning, I recommend skipping to timestamp 0:45 (m. 7), as the piece starts with an extended monologue. You can view the score here.
2) Atmospheric Entry for eight amplified violins and electronics - This piece was written for the violin studio of Lina Bahn at the University of Southern California, and translates the process of a probe entering the atmosphere and eventually landing on the surface of an alien world lightyears away. As the premiere was postponed due to COVID-19, I made this demo recording with myself playing the violin parts. You can view the score here.
3) Skyline Through Fog for trumpet and orchestra - I was recently fascinated with the way in which fog imbues our environment with heightened meaning, especially how it lends skyscrapers a lightness and endlessness, with their spires disappearing into the clouds. I wrote this piece to speak to that feeling in sound. This recording is a MIDI rendering. You can view the score here.
4) 2020 Fall, Threat​ for visual media and electronics. This piece is a collaboration between myself and video artist Sicheng Wang. The piece began as an installation with projections, but COVID-19 forced us to rethink our project and adapt it into a video piece. Sicheng created the video while I created the music in tandem. Once the piece took shape, we collaborated together on the details and polishing of both media. The work is constructed entirely of found materials, collaging together military footage, ancient artworks, and musical artifacts to render an unstable tapestry that points to the destructive potentials of nationalism and xenophobia that have found new life in our time. You can read our full program note here.
Other documents (also found in the application) are included here for your convenience:
Statement of Purpose
​CV
Works List
Writing Sample

supplemental materials

supplement #1: Compressor for flute, clarinet, trumpet, violin, viola, and cello. As referenced in my statement of purpose, this piece is representative of an earlier phase in my work that was informed by formal rigidity and largely tonal materials. Compressor was written for yMusic. You can view the score here.
supplement #2: Scelsi - Anahit for violin and chamber orchestra. Nick Bentz - violin; Donald Crockett - conductor. USC Thornton Edge