Linda Dusman

for orchestra

ca. 11'15"

What Remains constitutes the second piece in a series of works embodying the concept of pis aller—“paths of last resort,” for me a fitting metaphor for our time of great immigrations, political extremes, and sudden local disruptive violence. What Remains explores specifically the human trait of obsession that often drives individuals to this final recourse, and that path’s potential for leading toward both great good and great evil.

What remains at its end? The air we breathe, the lives that air enables, our shared potential for good, and the possibility of an arrival at that end, rather than its opposite. What Remains stands as a reminder of humanity’s collective responsibility to walk a path away from obsessive violence and ugliness toward intentional peace and beauty.

A recording was made by the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jed Gaylin. 

Click here to view the score and listen to the recording.

Linda Dusman 

for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, double dass, harp, percussion, and piano

ca. 11'00"

What must our Lady Liberty be thinking? Staunchly guarding the NewYork harbor, sending a beacon of light still, but now a museum, what are her sonic memories of mothers singing to comfort their children? Mother of Exiles, your huddled masses are now at our southern borders, where there is a wall instead of a beacon of hope. How do we create a more perfect union, when we are faced so dramatically with the imperfections of our past and our present? What would that union sound like?

I want to express my appreciation to the cultures that created the lullabies quoted in this work: Syria, Nigeria, and the Andes region. My hope is that our shared concerns of caring for the young might bring these disparate voices together to forge a sustainable future. Any royalties resulting from performances of this work will be donated to Unicef, the United Nations agency for children.

The performance was recorded by the Inscape Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Richard Scerbo.

Click here to view the score and listen to the recording.

Sofia Kamayianni

for youth symphony orchestra

ca. 2'50"

This piece was premiered in 2015 by the UMBC Symphony under the direction of E. Michael Richards, and the video recording is linked below.

Click here to view the score and listen to the recording.

Click here to view the performance.

Sofia Kamayianni

for piano quartet (violin, viola, cello, and piano)

The piece, written in 2004, is built from three parts with bridge passages between each part in the form of solo piano sections. The mystery refers to my esoteric world at that time as well as to several abstract senses that I could not explain to myself. The ostinato of the third part is based on a Greek word meaning 'unsolved', with the mystery ending up in this way.

The linked video recording was performed by Airi Yoshioka (violin), Maria Lambros (viola), Gita Ladd (cello), and Audrey Andrist (piano).

Click here to view the score.

Click here to view the performance.

Sofia Kamayianni

for string quartet

ca. 4'45"

Click here to view the score and listen to a recording of the second movement.

Sofia Kamayianni

for string orchestra and children's choir

ca. 5'30"

Click here to view the score and listen to the recording.

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Annea Lockwood

for baritone voice, flute, trumpet, viola, cello, piano, percussion, and speaking voice

Luminescence was commissioned by Thomas Buckner, and is based on poems from Etel Adnan's SEA, which evoke the Lebanese coast of the Mediterranean, her birthplace. The Pacific Ocean is also a strong presence in her life as in Thomas Buckner's and mine, and so the piece celebrates our three-way friendship and our shared love of that ocean, which influenced the first song: here, the phrase lengths match the timing of long Pacific waves which I recorded in New Zealand, some years ago.

Click here to view the score.

Click here to listen on Annea Lockwood's website.

Ruth Lomon

for string quartet

ca. 18'30"

The Janus Quartet was composed during a stay at the MacDowell colony in Peterborough, N.H. I was there during the months of November and December in 1983. As I started to work on the quartet the snow began to fall – it was a very straight snowfall – not a trace of wind. The windows of my studio looked out on stands of firs and slender birches. The opening of this quartet tries to capture that serenity. The theme is shared between the two violins; the viola and cello are playing a D harmonic with the viola playing the note a quarter tone higher. You probably won't experience this as another tone but as a beat or pulsing of the note. This section is titled ''when the snow is falling." There follows a lively melodic and rhythmic development which closes at midpoint in the piece with a section reflecting the quarter-tone pedal point of the opening and leading into a recapitulation of what I'll call the ''snow'' theme, this time with the theme dispersed through the four instruments. This recapitulation leads into the second section of the quartet titled ''Remembrance of things passed." You may hear an echo of Schumann, a short phrase from Barber's Adagio for Strings, perhaps too short to pick it out but these echoes set the mood of this section. A quote from Beethoven's 15th quartet heightens the drama and leads into a climax coming to rest on a calm, cantabile close. The cellist closes with a theme which has been used as an accompaniement to the little fragments of Schumann and Barber. It is a quote from a setting of Blake's poem INJUNCTION which I composed in 1962.

The Angel that presided o'er my birth said

"little creature born of joy and mirth

Go love without the help of anything on earth".

Composed for the Janus String Quartet during a residency at the MacDowell Colony. 

Click here to view the score and listen to the recording.

Ruth Lomon

for two clarinets, violin, viola,  and live electronics

ca. 12'00"

Scored for two clarinets, violin, viola, 'cello and synthesizer, The Talisman was commissioned by Boston based Dinosaur Annex in 1989 with the proviso that one component should be live electronics. The seven sounds created with computer and Opcode Librarian and played from the synthesizer have a symbiotic relationship with the live instruments. The electronic sounds I wanted to use dictated the way I wrote for the live instrument and conversely, the qualities I wanted from the instruments led my search for a balanced electronic counterpart. The Talisman was written for my daughter who was nursing a terminally ill child. You will hear inflections of 'hush little baby...' in the rocking motion of the strings and in the viola which plays a full quote at the end of the piece.

Click here to view the score and listen to a recording.

Ruth Lomon

for piano quartet

ca. 13'45"

"Wolves can move very softly. The sound they make is in the manner of Los Angelos Timidos, the shyest angels. First they fall back and shadow the creature they're curious about. Then, all of a sudden, they appear ahead of the creature peeking half-face with one golden eye from behind a tree. Abruptly the wolf turns and vanishes in a blur of white ruff and plumed tail, only to backtrack and pop up behind the stranger again. That is shadowing".

 - from "Women Who Run With Wolves", Clarissa Pinkola Estes, author

Click here to view the score and listen to a recording.

Anna Rubin

for soprano, flute, oboe, Bb clarinet, bassoon, horn in F, piano, violin, viola, violoncello, and contrabass

De Nacht was written while I was studying in Amsterdam with Ton de Leeuw in 1983. I composed it for a competion run by the Delta Ensemble and was awarded first prize. I assembled the text, which is an impressionistic collage drawn from several sources including Near Eastern mythology and Malcolm’s X’s own life. Words from several languages are used. I was very influenced by the mythological works of Joseph Campbell and his concept of the hero’s journey. The piece is in two broad sections. Melodic fragments are set against fast, pizzicato and staccato accompanimental figures in the first part. It builds to a dramatic climax and is followed by a serene closing section which is a setting of a Hawaaian creation song.

At a time when the earth was hot,

At a time when the heavens turned about,

At a time when the sun was darkened to cause the moon to shine,

The slime, the source of the earth, the source of the night, that made the night,

Intense darkness! The deep darkness, the darkness of the sun, darkness of the night, the night gives birth.

The piece premiered at The Icebreaker (Het Ijsbreker), Amsterdam, in 1983 was performed several times after by the ensemble.

Click here to view the score.

Anna Rubin

for three violas

Viola à Tre was commissioned by the New York State Council on the Arts 1988. Violist Marlow Fisher initiated the project while he was living in New York City. The rich colors of the instrument provided inspiration for this work which contrasts contrapuntal with chordal sections. The musical language is flexible – at times atonal, modal, and quasi-tonal.

The piece premiered at the Dia Foundation in New York City in 1989.

Click here to view the score.

Anna Rubin

for string quartet

Flames Rising and Falling to the Sea is a one-movement work emphasizing melismatic and florid writing in a hereophonic texture. The note D perfumes the piece anchoring the atonal language of the piece.

Click here to view the score.

Patricia Ann Repar

for oboe, viola, and tape

ca. 9'45"

Commissioned by Kimberly Fredenburgh and Kevin Vigneau

it's endless weeping

one slowly descending tear at a time

carefully hidden from view

with a hint of tenderness

hovering in the sweet echoes of lullaby

but mostly it's thunder and rigor and passionate commitment

for nothing more than a

single moment of connection

and an unremarkable knowing

that somewhere the weeping has stopped

Special thanks to the artists and producers of the CD The Thula Project: An Album of South African Lullabies. The digital accompaniment for Alex includes short excerpts from 3 of the cuts on the CD: Homolela Ngwanaka, Umlolozelo, and Rhaliwent.

Click here to view the score.

Rahilia Hasanova

for orchestra

ca. 10'00"

Click here to view the score.

Rahilia Hasanova

for orchestra

ca. 14'34"

Click here to hear the score.

Click here to listen to the recording.

Rahilia Hasanova

for orchestra

ca. 12'00"

Everything in Life is Vibration (Albert Einstein). Everything has its own unique vibration, frequency, and sound. It means everything has a unique voice that is an expression of its vibrations and frequencies. Everything...snowflakes, crystals, flowers, take on their shapes according to their particular vibrations and responding to multiple vibrations, sounds, and voices of the universe. The universe is a choir of the myriad of voices. Each voice has to find the shape and expression to resonate with the universe. Each voice, if it is out of the connection with the choir of voices of the universe, is the solitary voice.

The Solitary Voice was premiered by the symphony orchestra of University of Maryland Baltimore County on November 22, 2015. Conductor: E.Michael Richards

Click here to view the score.

Click here to listen to the recording.

Rahilia Hasanova

for orchestra

ca. 19'00"

Click here to view the score.

Rahilia Hasanova

for flute, oboe, clarinet in Bb, percussion, guitar, harp, piano, strings

ca. 16'20"

My composition Sema'a, for the large ensemble, is not an illustration of dancing dervishes. Sema'a is my thoughts about the mankind circling destiny, about the motivation of the nature to create, variate, and circle forms and circumstances again and again. Sema'a is my pray for humanity and my hope.

Sema'a was commissioned by the Nieuw Ensemble, the Netherlands and premiered in Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Hague in 1994. Conductor: Ed Spanjaard

Click here to view the score.

Click here to listen to the recording.

Rahilia Hasanova

for flute/piccolo, strings, and piano

ca. 15'00"

Click here to view the score.