• SOLO •
Leave this place only as a friend - 7’
Vocalizing viola (2023)
Text and artwork by Eugene von Bruenchenhein (1910-1983)
Created for the Darmstadt Summer Course 2023; premiered by Alison Eom, recorded by Christoven Tan
[Weight] - 8’
Sop. + Fixed Media (2020)
Text by Susan Bywaters
Premiered by Shannyn Rinker
[Weight] confronts the command at the heart of diet culture: lose weight at all costs. This command is the manifestation of diet culture, a prescription for the body to eat itself. This advice is given directly and constantly through advertisements, social media, and even at the doctor’s office, where people are “treated” for serious illness only through directions to lose weight. Daily microaggressions repeat this mantra so constantly that to hear it is akin to hearing your own thoughts: lose weight by whatever means necessary.
In this piece, the singer listens to this caustic message. They internalize it, their spiraling thoughts heard in the repetitious electronics. They respond, like many do, by falling down the slippery slope of diet culture, and the control that it promises as it tightens its grip.
But this illusion of control has dangerous implications. It will destroy any body it claims to save.
Video/choreography: Nora Winsler
Unexpected Call - 3’
Solo Tenor (2021)
Text by Marcus Jefferson
Premiered by Alexander Rodriguez
Written in collaboration with the Manhattan School of Music Contemporary Opera Ensemble’s Our Multiple Voices Project, overseen by director Miriam Charney, Lucy Shelton, Mark Campbell, and Reiko Füting.
[Li][bə] - 3’
Solo Soprano (2021)
Artwork by Lou Veramessa
In This Moment (I Choose) - 10’
Solo Piano (2020)
Premiered by Jixue Yang
In This Moment (I Choose) is a testament to individuality. Not only does the piano respond to the performer’s individual touch, but also your breath, voice, and theatricality to create one never-before-heard product of sound. The vocal line is written to adapt the traditional piano timbre into one that now can crescendo upon sustain, produce vowels, and even breathe. It is intended that the sound travel back and forth between the piano and the performer. The piece is written to exhibit extremes in all instruments present. The performer harnesses these extremes of sound knowing that they have the ability to be both loud and soft, to be dissonant and consonant, rubato and strict - all in ways that only they can achieve.