Music: Vocal Works

Five Songs (arrangement)
1930 / 2024

Arrangement-in-progress for voice and chamber orchestra of Israel Citkowitz’s “Five Songs” for voice and piano (1930).

Score to movements one through three viewable here.

uncoil
2023

An art song for mezzo / medium voice and piano about desire and anticipation. Commissioned by The Juilliard School for The New Series: Juilliard Pride Songbook. Text in English by Rita Mae Reese. Length: 3′

View Score here

absence, presence
2023
I.
II.
III.
IV.

An uncanny song cycle in four movements for medium voice and piano. The piece explores the theme of the presence of absence through settings of modern and contemporary American poetry. Finalist for the 2024 NATS Art Song Composition Competition

View score here.

The Nothing Lamp
2021

A theatrical song cycle in five movements for soprano and piano. A bittersweet tale of five people who are connected across four decades by an old lamp that they come to own. The different characters are linked by their common ability to see beauty and possibility where you might not expect it, and to find transcendent moments in everyday life. Text in English by Mark Campbell. Length (total): 20″ Finalist for the 2022 NATS Art Song Composition Competition

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A CD recording was released on February 11, 2022 featuring soprano Jessica Fishenfeld and pianist Mila Henry.

Daylight Saving
2020
November: Deployment
December: Radio Silence
January: Birthday
February: Summer Memory
March: Homecoming

A song cycle in five movements about waiting.   A woman bides her time, thinking of her partner who is away at war.  Text in English by Melisa Tien. Length (total): 18′  Finalist for the 2021 NATS Art Song Composition Competition

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“February: Summer Memory” is available for sale as part of North Star Music’s anthology Modern Music for New Singers: Soprano Volume 2.

Life's Work
2019

For baritone and piano; commissioned by the Cheah-Chan Duo.  Text by Melisa Tien.  The song explores the idea of beauty, and how it changes over the course of a lifetime. Length: 5′

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Dust World
2015
Excerpt

For bass-baritone and string quartet. A monodrama exploring themes of identity, privilege, and desire set on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the 1980s. Part of the collaborative chamber opera “American Gothic.” Text by Adrian C. Louis. Length: 13′

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…a clear view…
2015
Movement III

For tenor and baroque ensemble, commissioned by New Vintage Baroque. In three movements setting texts relating to the New York Slave Conspiracy of 1741, this piece reframes events from the past from the perspective of the present. Length (total): 13′

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A Reflection
2014

For mezzo-soprano or soprano and piano. A modern retelling of the Narcissus myth. Text by Jason Kim. Length: 7′

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Seeking You
2014

A mini song cycle in two movements for bass-baritone and piano. Two different characters – one from the present and one from the past – seek connection in their own unique ways. Texts by Jason Kim and Walt Whitman. Length: 7′

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A letter to my stepson in his time of grief
2013

A dramatic scene for soprano and piano. Text by Jason Kim, inspired by Racine’s “Phedre.” Length: 6′

Casting Off
2012
If I should cast off this tattered coat
Aye, workman, make me a dream
Once, I knew a fine song
On the horizon the peaks assembled
Three little birds in a row
The livid lightnings flashed in the clouds
There came whisperings in the winds
Should the wide world roll away

For voice (originally tenor; also arranged for medium and low voice) and piano. A song cycle in eight concentrated movements loosely organized around the theme of taking risks and overcoming doubt and fear in love and in art-making. Poetry by Stephen Crane. Length: 15′ Finalist for the 2014 NATS Art Song Composition Competition.

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Complete audio above. “The livid lightnings flashed in the clouds” in performance (2021) by countertenor Jordan Rutter here.

Three Everyday Songs
2005

A song cycle in three movements for soprano and piano about transcendent moments in everyday life. Texts in English by Jean Joubert, Margaret Atwood, and Billy Collins. Length: 11′

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