YAKOV ("JACOB") SHULEPOV, B.M. ’23: Coming off a storm
Regardless, in this piece you’re trying to get back into it, the thing you so desperately want to enjoy. And then didn’t know what to do with your life that’d been built around them? Have you ever admired someone and then found out they’re a terrible person? Either way, this piece is not about that. You’re trying to desperately get back into it, the groove of the thing you’d want to enjoy.
—Yakov ("Jacob") Shulepov
MILES WEINMAN, B.M. ’22: Red Pearls
Briefly, the title stems from "Rid Pearls," an anagram of "Risperdal."
—Miles Weinman
HEI LAM HANLEY CHAN, B.M. ’23: State of Being
Unpresence is a piece that explores the absence of each musical voice. These voices either find themselves throughout the duration of the piece, or they get lost and fade away.
Presence is about competing musical voices. Which instrument will manage to take center stage? How will they manage to do so?
—Hei Lam Hanley Chan
RYAN JOHNSTON, M.M. ’22: ...the sea itself…
One of my favorite musical genres is the piano miniature. I find an immense beauty in the way these pieces conjure up delicate worlds of sound; saying what needs to be said in a simple, yet poetic way.
Over the past couple years, I've become fascinated with music that slows down the perception of time and lingers on ideas for an extended period. When I began to write this piece, I strove to combine these two interests to create what I call a "miniature in slow motion." To achieve this, I took a figuration
one would find in a prelude and spun it out for longer than its nature might suggest. At a certain threshold, the performer/listener will ideally begin to perceive the piece on a more grander scale. The title is a quotation from Walt Whitman's “Song of the Exposition.” This poem served as inspiration for the watery atmosphere of the work.
—Ryan Johnston
PRANAV YAGNARAMAN, B.M. ’24: Woodwind Trio
A light and quick piece for flute, oboe, and bassoon.
—Pranav Yagnaraman
ENRIQUE HERNANDEZ DE TEJADA, B.M. ’22: String Quartet 2021
The writing of this quartet focused especially on developing a small number of ideas that are introduced within the opening few measures. These brief motifs, of which a recurring four-note figure is most dominant, are manipulated in various ways, serving as essential building blocks of the composition. Structurally, the piece can be conceived as having two contrasting sections, responding to one another with increasing agitation, resulting in an overarching struggle that demands resolution.
—Enrique Hernandez de Tejada