Sinfonietta Premiere / Houston in July

Well I spent a little chunk of July in Houston, TX at the Texas New Music Festival. This intensive composer fellowship was a first for me, taking music I wrote to an ensemble, working through rehearsals and up to a performance. The main piece of music is a 5 minute dramatic sinfonietta that I wrote for the Texas New Music Ensemble. 

My usual composing or songwriting involves performing many the parts myself, often all of the parts. I may write a short film score and I’m writing and playing the synthesizers, guitar, bass, soft synths, and using samples for string parts or in the best case, hiring a string player to play the part. Having access to 12 amazing musicians to workshop this music was a really great change for me and a learning experience. I also really enjoyed working with a conductor, Sandro Naglia, to really bring the notes off of the pages and into existence.

Houston is a hot and humid place, you pay the price in sweat of venturing out into the streets, but it is full of great people and culture and I had a blast! I watched a world cup game in a place called Post, which is an old post office converted to a food court and art space. I explored the art museums and saw an outdoor performance with some of the other composer and conductor fellows. And I got to see my music performed in the MATCH performing arts center. 

There are videos you can see in this new section of my website for concert music. An aesthetic Demise is my 5 minute sinfonietta piece. I wanted to write a dramatic piece that unfolds like a narrative, moving through different "scenes" or "scenarios." I think I achieved this, and enjoyed how the TNME performed the piece. The second video is a piece for two violins called Against Hope, something a little more light and melodic with some builds of intensity.