These pieces represent me as a composer who takes inspiration from either incredibly stark memories or daily and sometimes even mundane activities that are easily repeatable. DENSITY was written when black artists were essentially being paid reparations through collaborations and commissions for witnessing what happened to George Floyd. This piece helped me find the joys in writing music again considering a tragic event marked the start of my career. The First Time I Felt the Wind is about my daily commute through Michigan State’s serene historic campus to the music building, my goal to capture the soundscape of the carillon bell tower echoing through the trees. cream earl grey chronicles my daily tea routine. Although I like to mix up my morning brew, during the time I wrote this piece I had a cup of cream earl grey every morning, engaging all of my five senses and noting down every detail I could, hoping to capture the experience of brewing one of my all time favorite teas.

I’d encourage you to listen to these pieces either in order (DENSITY, The First Time I Felt the Wind, cream earl grey) or reverse. From a visual perspective, these pieces take you on a journey from abstract to traditional notation and a land in between (or vice versa depending on how you’re listening). The sonic journey is much of the same. In DENSITY the performer is asked to “play” the visual gestures that stand out the most amidst the noise; in The First Time I Felt the Wind the gestures start as extended vocal techniques symbolizing the wind and eventually become the musically notated gestures symbolizing Michigan State’s Beaumont Tower Carillon; in cream earl grey the small two note gesture is expanded and layered on top of one another that chronicle all of the little steps that combine together to make a cuppa (hehehe).