LARGE ENSEMBLE
The Abandoned Ballroom
for String Orchestra
Written for young string students, "The Abandoned Ballroom" is an eerily simple waltz that mixes pizzicato and arco techniques to portray an empty ballroom filled with dancing ghosts. The violins, cellos and basses come together in a pizzicato waltz accompaniment to create the feeling of a spooky, decaying ballroom before the violas enter in with the melody. The low strings get a chance to play the melody before the violins introduce a more happy waltz melody,pulling the listeners into an imaginative dance with the surprisingly friendly ghosts!
Premiered April 11th, 2024, by the CSUSB New Music Ensemble conducted by Veronica Manzanera
Morning Sun
for String Orchestra
Morning Sun, for string orchestra, comes from a brief melody with a simple ascending bass line made of a compressed stack of fourths. The resulting piece is meant to be a lyrical piece that allows the violas to carry an equal importance as the violin sections would, while also supporting with an equally important counter melody underneath the violins. Through these melodies, imagine the sun’s rays peaking over the snow covered mountains as they land onto a calm, lush green forest canopy.
Premiered April 11th, 2024, by the CSUSB New Music Ensemble conducted by Veronica Manzanera
Acrylic Dreams
for Symphony Orchestra
I. "The Gallery"
II. "From the Campagna"
III. "To a Magnolia Blossom"
Acrylic Dreams is an homage to character works, salon pieces and miniatures. The goal of the suite is to take the smaller programmatic, romantic parlor piece tradition and bring it into a symphonic setting. The inspiration for the suite comes from the concept behind Modest Mussorgsky’s renowned Pictures at an Exhibition and two pieces of artwork that are a part of the Timken art collection housed in San Diego, California.
The suite opens with “The Galley,” a contemplative movement that sets the ambience for the suite. The movement begins with the string sections creating the illusion of rainfall, before dying away so the horns can create a layer of warmth with a simple chord progression. The woodwinds then weave in and out with short overlapping melodic fragments over top the warm chords. This impressionistic inspired movement uses the contemplative, meditative-like mood to illustrate the mundane, blank white walls of an art gallery that are scattered with pops of color from the displayed eccentric art pieces
As the orchestra dies away, the celesta and harp take lead with an ominous motif overtop an unnerving chord progression presented by the horns. The celesta and harp entrance listeners almost as if they transport them directly into a painting, leading into the second movement, “From the Campagna.” This movement is based on Thomas Moran’s landscape painting entitled “Rome, from the Campagna,” which details a beautiful hillside view of distant ruins at sunset. To portray this, the string sections create a low, unnerving rumble while the woodwind section again takes lead of the orchestra with a series of melodic fragments based off the whole-tone scale. These fragments emphasize a feeling of uneasiness one might feel as the sunsets in an unfamiliar place as the melodies lead listeners through unresolved lines and dissonant harmonies.
The final movement entitled “To a Magnolia Blossom,” is based on Martin Johnson Heade’s still life painting entitled “The Magnolia Blossom.” The movement is a response specifically to composer Edward MacDowell and his piece “To a Wild Rose,” using a quotation of the miniature to place emphasis on the type of parlor pieces the suite was inspired by. The movement weaves in and out of orchestral tuttis and solo sections showing two overarching themes. The initial statements of each theme is presented with a solo violin passage, which is followed by a reiteration in a large, sweeping orchestral tutti. The two themes are restated together as one in the final orchestral tutti before all but the solo violin and piano retreat. The solo violin dolefully sings the second theme over gentle piano chords before gently bringing the conclusion of the suite.
Premiered May 9th, 2024 by the CSUSB Sympony Orchestra, directed by Dr. Lucy Lewis.
Song for the Willows
for Chamber Orchestra
This piece originally took shape as a trio for flute, viola, and cello. This uncompleted trio is from about 2019/2020, the year I had started to entertain the idea of composing music. The inspiration for the trio came from an art print that portrayed three skeletal figures draped in long, flowing, yellow dresses and flower crowns while playing these instruments, except one was a bass not a cello. They are set together in what looks like a swamp-like environment with blue butterflies surrounding them. I had always imagined that despite their bright appearances, they improvised laments together to mourn how they are stuck forever in the swampy afterlife only with their instruments and each other.
This orchestration of the sketches recreates the lamenting trio as a short, lyrical intermezzo. This version tries to retain and develop some of the initial ideas the trio presented, building the atmosphere more and including more textures to portray the dark, foreboding environment. The wind section takes center stage more in this intermezzo as a reflection of the flute texture that dominated the original trio, but instead allowing the winds to pass around the melody and building harmonies underneath the leading voices. The strings take the role more as accompaniment and texture, building the harmonies underneath the winds before the upper strings are able to restate the melodic materials and passing it along to the cellos as they play in unison with the bassoon to bring the piece to an end.
Premiered April 23rd, 2025 by the New Music Chamber Orchestra conducted by Veronica Manzanera
Lightshards
for Violin, Viola, and Chamber Orchestra
I. "Moon-shadow"
II. "Dusk's Light"
III. "Dawnbreak"
IV. "Sunglow"
Lightshards is a short nocturne suite for violin, viola, and chamber orchestra. This suite originally took form in a short piano suite that was written early 2022, which was during the time I had started to seriously study and work on music composition. The suite is inspired by a combination of the simplistic beauty of Chopin’s fourth piano Prelude in E minor, and the harmonic language Olivier Messiaen used for the fifth movement, “Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus” of his renowned Quartuor pour la fin du temps.
I had found that Messiaen’s ability to create delicate and smooth lyricism with dissonance to be fascinating, which encouraged me to explore more the idea of chromaticism and purposeful dissonance more in my own music, as I tended to stay very tonal. As this suite was part of initial experiments in chromaticism, it is filled with numerous suspensions as my tendency towards strict tonality would often cause me to switch between dissonant and consonant chords. The choice for solo violin and viola is to mirror Messiaen’s use of the cello and piano for his fifth movement, but to also focus more on the nuance of dissonance that comes with orchestral string instruments, and how instruments, such as the viola, can use their warmth to round out dissonance, making it more appealing.
The structure of the suite is such so that the solo violin and viola are given the opportunity to collaborate together, but also so that they are able to showcase their musicianship independently of another. The outer movements have the soloists working together, while the inner movements give opportunities for true soloistic playing, with the violin leading the second movement, and viola the third. The first two movements create textures reminiscent of that found in Chopin’s prelude. The strings portato strokes help create the soft texture for the soloists to sing over with the winds providing short bursts of a countermelody, and the percussion acting as a foil with their bright resonance. The texture changes in the third movement, with the strings providing a mixture of tremelo and pizzacato accompaniment to create a more eerie, mysterious tone underneath the soloist. The final movement then focuses on warmth, bring in the percussion once again this time the marimba laying down a blanket of sound for the ensemble to build off of. The violin harmonics act as short, brief foils to cut the richness of the ensemble as the soloists sing their doleful melodies.
Premiered April 23rd, 2025 by violinist Priscilla Ibarra, violist Gabriel Knights-Herrera, and the New Music Chamber Orchestra conducted by Veronica Manzanera
In the Ruins of a Temple
for Chamber Orchestra
In the Ruins of a Temple is a short lyrical poem for chamber orchestra that is inspired by a mixture of Rococo artist Hubert Robert’s painting, “A Hermit Praying in the Ruins of a Roman Temple” and modern video game composer Koichi Sugiyama.
The intersection of these two different pieces comes in how they both handle themes of religion. In Robert’s painting, he depicts a hermit praying in front of a crucifix, which juxtaposes the dilapidated Roman temple his altar is made in. Sugiyama’s work also incorporates themes of religion as his compositions for the video game Dragon Quest IX reflect the overarching religious undertones the game’s plot has and how it also pulls influence from Christianity. The piece specifically “In the Ruins of a Temple” draws from is his orchestration of his composition “Angelic Land,” which in the game plays in a location known as “the Observatory,” which acts as a hub for a set of angel-like characters. Listeners can hear the combination of religious and pop musical elements that create an overall stoic, yet serene piece that portrays imagery of church sanctuaries bathed in colored light pouring through stained glass.
In the Ruins of a Temple blends elements from the these two artists to create a unique narrative that focuses on the Hermit depicted in Robert’s art piece. The piece slowly builds the atmosphere depicted in the portrait, seeking to grasp the grand stillness of an abandoned, ruined temple. Stoicism is combined with a tinge of sorrow as a way to reflect the Hermit’s prayers. The melody begins sorrowful and mystifying as the Hermit completes his daily prayers, almost regretfully as he wishes for a more grandeur altar away from the old religion. The melody grows as so his prayers as he endures the harassment brought on by his onlooking thieves, not losing focus. A short string interlude brings about a short respite, the Hermit adds in another prayer asking for forgiveness and mercy on behalf of his onlookers. The work then ends with a final restatement of the initial melody as a final prayer by the Hermit to act as a promise to stay devoted to his faith.
Premiered April 23rd, 2025 by the New Music Chamber Orchestra conducted by Veronica Manzanera