Composers’ Recital Series
A concert featuring new works by Conservatory undergraduate and graduate composition students.
The public is invited to watch the livestream. The in-person performance in Studio 106 is only open to the Berklee community (students, faculty, staff) and invited guests.
Program Information
Repertoire
CAROLINE SKREBUTENAS, B.M. '25: Fragmentation
Alexis Mitchell, flute
Arjan Dogra, trumpet
Caleb Waker, trumpet
BARRET ALLEN, B.M. '25: La Fenêtre Nuageuse
Enrique Hernandez de Tejada, cello
Tigran Mardanyan, piano
PRANAV YAGNARAMAN, B.M. '24: Étoiles à L’horizon
Julian Gau, piano
BENJAMIN LAHAM, B.M. '25: Free Mind
Aaron Dore, flute
Benjamin Laham, piano
TIFFANY HEE JAE HWANG, B.M. '25: Different Seasons
Enrique Hernandez de Tejada, cello
JULIAN DÜRR, B.M. '25: i must remember
Annie McDougall, violin I
Lauren Oeser, violin II
Lauren Wilson, viola
Nick Politi, cello
Christian Weimer, percussion
DIEGO PERALTA GONZALES, B.M. '25: Spirit of the Dead Watching (for Marimba and Cello)
Andrés Celis, cello
Ritvik Yaparpalvi, marimba
DANIEL J. ELIZALDE, B.M. '25: The Garden's Burning Down
Christian Arroyo Castillo, oboe
Annika Pollock, clarinet
Kate White, bassoon
JACKSON ALFREY, B.M. '25: I Stood in a Forest for a Moment
Mason Davis, clarinet
Andrés Celis, cello
Mauricio Campos Gonzalez, piano
Julian Dürr, conductor
CHLOE SMITH, B.M. '25: Rejection
Leon Baker III, violin
John Tobin, viola
JACKSON ALFREY, B.M. '25: You, at the Water
Elena Farley, soprano
Nicole Mulready, soprano
Maddie Ritter, soprano
Laura Santamaria-Mendez, soprano
Jenny Baena-Brito, alto
Caitlin Winston, alto
Lucy Martindale, alto
Sara Mesibov, alto
Shin Kim, tenor
Jackson Alfrey, tenor
William Choi, tenor
Alan Cid, tenor
Vaughn Nesmith, bass
Barret Allen, bass
Ben Laham, bass
Vincent Bennett, bass
Theodore Duong, piano
PETER ZHAOYANG HAN, B.M. '25: Brass Quintet in E-flat, Op.10
Fanfare: Allegro-Andante
Allegro vivace
Chorale: Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen, Andante non troppo-Recitative
March
Robert Adams, trumpet
Justin Taveras, trumpet
Maya Schiek, horn
Lauren Galarraga, trombone & euphonium
Kofi Temeng, tuba
Program Notes
CAROLINE SKREBUTENAS, B.M. '25: Fragmentation
A short piece using a series of fragmented patterns, slowly developing and changing throughout.
–Caroline Skrebutenas, composer
BARRET ALLEN, B.M. '25: La Fenêtre Nuageuse
For my first ever Boston Conservatory CRS piece, I decided to explore tonal harmony in a manner that I never had before, by contextualizing a chromatically descended harmony through harmonic progressions that firmly plant this duet in an observable key. This piece changes which instrument holds the melody and which instrument plays the accompaniment between each phrase, and seeks to achieve a balance between the instruments that is mathematical in structure, yet lyrical and expressive in person.
–Barret Allen, composer
PRANAV YAGNARAMAN, B.M. '24: Étoiles à L’horizon
This piece is a movement from a piano suite that I wrote. The title translates to “Stars on the horizon.” It is meant to reflect the vastness of the night sky.
–Pranav Yagnaraman, composer
BENJAMIN LAHAM, B.M. '25: Free Mind
This is a very free and light work, much of which moves forward out of time and requires a great deal of communication and has a somewhat improvisatory nature.
—Benjamin Laham, composer
TIFFANY HEE JAE HWANG, B.M. '25: Different Seasons
I wanted to express different atmospheres during four seasons throughout the piece.
—Tiffany Hee Jae Hwang, composer
JULIAN DÜRR, B.M. '25: i must remember
i must remember was written variating on a theme I wrote in my later years of high school, and is meant to convey a personal emotional journey around memory loss that I struggle with. The piece opens with very bright colors and, as it develops, slowly digs deeper as the narrative turns toward reminiscence. In the middle of the piece, I highlight frustration; I aim to reflect on the emotional indignation one feels when unable to recall their own actions and feelings—the tone becoming almost sarcastic with the theme being "mocked" in the violins. The piece returns to the bright colors from the beginning, representing hopefulness in the wake of the turmoil from before, and develops further—digging emotionally deeper. The piece comes to a relaxed end, settled, yet still a hint of precariousness leaves the narrative intentionally irresolute.
—Julian Dürr, composer
DIEGO PERALTA GONZALES, B.M. '25: Spirit of the Dead Watching (for Marimba and Cello)
This movement is based on the painting of the same name by the French painter Paul Gauguin. In this painting we see two characters: a naked woman - Gauguin's wife - lying on a bed, looking towards the viewer with a fearful look, and an old woman sitting behind her. In this piece I represent how, according to Gauguin, his wife was one day when he arrived home and on what he based the painting: "motionless, naked, lying face down on the bed with her eyes immeasurably big with fear (...)". In this work I explore this fear that the painter's wife had by using a monotonous rhythm, almost motionless, and dissonant chords that represent the fear, apparently without any reason, that the woman had. In both instruments I explore their low register, generating a dark and disturbing sound spectrum.
—Diego Peralta Gonzales, composer
DANIEL J. ELIZALDE, B.M. '25: The Garden's Burning Down
Beautiful things decay. Sometimes they burn down.
—Daniel J. Elizalde, composer
JACKSON ALFREY, B.M. '25: I Stood in a Forest for a Moment
This piece is based in a relatively simple experience I had a few weeks ago where I looked out the window and was reminded of my home in Ohio. Just out the window there was a single tree whose leaves completely covered the view. In contrast to the new pressure of this city, this was a very profound moment that threw every bit of pressure off my shoulders. This piece is written as a direct response to haiku I wrote about this very instance:
Months of sirens
Fall off my shoulders
In a forest again
It’s a simple emotional experience, so simple melodies carry the piece, and are decorated by various textures to create different contexts of the forest. Lastly, new textures develop as the piece comes to a close and these different moments are laid on top of each other.
—Jackson Alfrey, composer
CHLOE SMITH, B.M. '25: Rejection
This duet for violin and viola is meant to capture the feelings of rejection, whether it be societal, familial, romantic, or religious. All of us have experienced at least one (or all) of these forms of rejection. The beginning embodies the preparation to give yourself to a person. You may be calm and collected, formulating how you’re going to present yourself. But as the music progresses and the time comes for you to actually speak, you feel hesitant, anxiety making your stomach churn and do backflips. Then, towards the end, you finally express yourself...and then you hear a “no…” And then you’re frozen, your words are caught in your throat, and you feel your heart drop...which is why the music ends without ever finishing the beginning motif.
—Chloe Smith, composer
JACKSON ALFREY, B.M. '25: You, at the Water
You, at the Water began as a poem sharing the text of the piece. The piece follows my relationship with composition until the time of writing. There are very specific tensions and consonances present at each and every moment of the piece. These are meant to be captured by the specific voicings at each moment. This piece is very much improvisatory in nature, but there are many themes that reassert themselves in different ways to color different moments of reminiscence.
—Jackson Alfrey, composer
PETER ZHAOYANG HAN, B.M. '25: Brass Quintet in E-flat, Op.10
Writing a brass quintet with a fanfare beginning has been a desire I had for a long time. As I have all these fantastic brass instrument, I think a fanfare is very appropriate with this instrumentation. In the second movement, I prepared a sonata-allegro movement for you, which I do all the time. The third movement incorporates a Bach chorale, and I am trying to presents a little drama for you. The last movement is a Sousa-style March, in honor of the 167th birthday of John Philip Sousa on the sixth of November, when I was composing this movement. Personally, I like Sousa's march, mostly because of my experience in marching band, and I think such form works for the brass quintet instrumentation. Overall, I hope you enjoy this piece.
—Peter Zhaoyang Han, composer
Music Division and Performance Services
MUSIC DIVISION
Dean of Music
– Michael Shinn
Chair of Voice – Patty Thom
Chair of Instrumental Studies – Matthew Marsit
Chair of Composition, Contemporary Music, and Core Studies – Jonathan Bailey Holland
Chief Ensemble Operations Coordinator – Ryan Fossier
Ensembles Coordinator – Victoria Garcia
Administrative Coordinator – Chantel O'Brien
PERFORMANCE SERVICES
Director of Performance Services – Liz Keller-Tripp
Director of Audio/Visual Services – Richard Malcolm
Audio/Visual Specialist – Phil Roberson
Associate Director of Concert Services – Ryland Bennett
Special thanks to all audience members for viewing this program information online. Viewing this information digitally has saved 200 sheets of paper—that's 21 gallons of water preserved and 18 pounds of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions eliminated.