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ORCHESTRA
MOSHE’S DREAM
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(2022)
symphony orchestra:
2222 4221 timp + 3 perc strings
duration: approx. 15 minutes
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My inspiration for Moshe’s Dream comes directly from my grandpa Morry. During the 2020 lockdown, both of us isolated in our small apartments, he and I would talk on the phone about our innate love of klezmer music and how it never failed to cheer us up even when life was bleak. In December 2020, he called to tell me about a dream he had that I started a klezmer band and that I wrote a piece for him called Moshe’s Dream in the klezmer style. This piece is my interpretation of my grandpa’s dream and the music he heard within it.
Jewish folk music was a big inspiration for me, though this piece is not meant to be a musical reflection on klezmer music and I do not quote any klezmer melodies. Instead, I incorporate klezmer idioms, including scales, instrumentation, rhythms, and pitch bends, to evoke the same spirit of joy, silliness, laughter, wit, humor, sorrow, strength, and resilience that is shared by the klezmer tradition and my grandfather.
-M.I.
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Commissioner
Commissioned by Chicago Sinfonietta for their 2021-2022 Season
Mei-Ann Chen, Music Director
Blake-Anthony Johnson, CEO
World Premieres conducted by Taichi Fukumura, Assistant Conductor
Premieres
Premiered by Chicago Sinfonietta at Limitless Horizon
May 14, 2022 at Wentz Concert Hall, Naperville, IL
May 16, 2022 at Symphony Center, Chicago, IL
EARTH TRIPTYCH: II. Symbiosis Interrupted
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II. Symbiosis Interrupted
(2019)
symphony orchestra:
2222 4221 timp + 3 perc strings
4 min
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WIND AND PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE
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(2010)
wind ensemble
12 minutes
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The Mind Grows Heated was composed in fulfillment of my BA Honors Thesis for Distinction in Music. The title comes from something my mother always said to me whenever I was struggling with a project: "Only begin and the mind grows heated; only begin and the task is completed." Although not composed with a specific program in mind, the piece follows the psychological process of composing my first work for a large ensemble. The rising, open-ended melodies and the flowing accompaniment of the opening Andante section speak of the worried, yet hopeful, anticipation I experienced as I set out into new compositional territory. The percussive and militaristic material in the Allegro section represents the fear and anxiety I experienced while working on the piece, personifying doubt and insecurity as foes against which I had to battle. My endurance through these obstacles is represented by the ostinato figure in this section. The hopeful theme of the opening section finally rises out of the chaos, leading to a triumphant grandioso ending that represents a successful completion of my thesis.
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THE MIND GROWS HEATED
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(2023)
concert band, grade 2
4 minutes
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Awakening at Wooded Ridge is the culmination of a two-year collaboration with band director Keith Carlson and his students at Thomas Jefferson Junior High in Woodridge, Illinois. Throughout the semester of their composition unit during which each student was working on their own piece, I visited their classroom and presented on composition basics and musical storytelling techniques. I then collected their final compositions and created a piece for them to perform based off and inspired by their work.
-M.I.
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Premiered May 2023 by the Thomas Jefferson Jr. High Band in Woodridge, IL
Band Director: Keith Carlson
AWAKENING AT WOODED RIDGE
THE WOLF AND THE SEVEN YOUNG KIDS
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(2011)
text by: The Brothers Grimm
for percussion ensemble and narrator
12 minutes
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The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids is for five to seven percussionists and dramatic narrator. It tells the story of the Grimm's fairy tale of the same title, in which a villainous wolf masquerades as the mother of seven young goats in order to succeed in his dastardly plot to swallow them whole. The piece employs specific instruments and themes to represent the different characters and actions of the story, and the narrator reads the original text in time with the music.
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This piece was premiered in the Fall of 2014 by the College of St. Benedict/St. John's University Percussion Ensemble.
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SOLO VOCAL
WHAT EVERY WOMAN MUST NOT SAY
OUR IDEA OF NOTHING AT ALL
A CONSISTENT ANTI TO HER SON
HOPE!
EPOCHS: I. Surprise, II. Patience, III. Hope
LITTLES
SOMETHING SINGS
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CHAMBER ENSEMBLE and SOLO
