My work, Tomorrow was premiered on the December 6th Penn Sound Collective concert at The University of Pennsylvania. For one of my first semester projects, I thought this turned out very well!

A big thank you to Wendy Lu (cello) and Elijah Orlenko for their amazing work on this piece! And also a big thank you to Tyshawn Sorey for covering my scores in kind and supportive red ink each week. Also a big thank you to Alexey for the amazing camera work and editing of this work.

My master’s thesis, Speak Louder Than Words for orchestra, can now be viewed in video form online! Please follow this link to stream it on youtube: https://youtu.be/I67F7fD3mSc This performance is of the Shepherd School of Music Symphony Orchestra directed by Jerry Hou.

A big thank you to the New England Philharmonic for giving this work a slated second performance upcoming on June 1st from 4-7PM. The “public reading session” will include a rehearsal as well as a final performance, so please come by and view the normally behind the scenes process of rehearsing this work before it is read at the end of the session.

If you’d like to follow along to a score of this work or read more about it, please go to my page on this work by clicking here.

This upcoming fall I’ll begin my PhD in music composition at the University of Pennsylvania as a Fontaine Fellow. I’m super excited to get to work with the very tight-knit composer community there, which includes such amazing composer faculty as Natacha Diels, Anna Weesner, and last year’s Pulitzer Prize recipient, Tyshawn Sorey. I’ll get to take part in a number of performances by visiting ensembles in the department as well as the yearly new music for orchestra readings at the Curtis Institute. Additionally, I’ll be performing in ensembles at Penn’s campus such as the Penn Symphony Orchestra (directed by a Rice alum!)

It’s going to be a really drastic change going from the car-centric and blazing hot Houston to walkable and chilly Philly. As a fan of the snow, I warmly welcome this change in atmosphere.

My new orchestral work, SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS premieres tonight at 7:30PM in Stude Concert Hall at the Shepherd School of Music under the baton of Jerry Hou. This work was my master’s thesis and is being premiered alongside 4 other works on the abnormally large “Alumni Composer Spotlight” concert. It’s been something of a dream to write for this orchestra that I’ve admired so much since coming to Rice University in 2022. They’ve really taken to the work and I’m excited to hear the results of their labor tonight.

For (free) tickets as well as a link to the livestream, please click here.

And to read about this piece and see the score, please click here.

My new work for quintet (alto flute, bass clarinet, violin, cello, piano) was premiered on February 15th by DACAMERA Young Artists with me conducting. The work was simultaneously an elegy for my recently deceased mentor, Karl Kohn, as well as a response to Joe Overstreet’s exhibition, Taking Flight, on view at the Menil right now. More information on this work coming soon!