Quartet (2017) for string quartet,  15 min
Commissioned by the Verona Quartet, Concert Artists Guild, and BMI Foundation. Music available from Black Tea Music.

Program Notes

  After several weeks of sketching my first quartet in the fall of 2016, I started over in mid-November
as the piece became a sort of personal reaction to the presidential election. I felt the need to write
something comforting and thought of the pulsing chords that open Sibelius’ Second Symphony. A
similar gesture of lulling, repeated chords became the basis for material in the first movement. I
thought simple sugars (carbs that are metabolized quickly and provide an immediate rush, but no
nutritional substance) was a fitting title for the restless energy of the second movement.

I. Mother Chords

II. Simple Sugars

 

Low-Hanging Fruit (2015) for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, 6 min
Commissioned by The Copland House for the Music from Copland House Ensemble.

 

Gather (2022) nonet for flute, clarinet, bassoon, horn, and string quintet (20 minutes)
Commissioned by The Copland House for the Music from Copland House Ensemble.

Program Notes

 Gather, a nonet in a large single movement, was completed in the late spring of 2022. For several years (predating the pandemic) I had the idea of composing a work that begins with an empty stage, and an ensemble that gathers on stage as the piece unfolds. After an offstage horn open the work with a distant call, the musicians slowly gather on stage during the opening minutes of the work. As each takes their place, a simple melody is passed between them, until the full ensemble joins in a joyful tutti.

 

Outliers (2014) versions available for piano quintet, piano quartet, string quintet, and string quartet. 8 min.

 

Breath and Shadow (2010) for clarinet, trombone, piano, perc, violin, and bass, 6min. Premiered by the Norfolk Festival New Music Ensemble.

 

Fold by Fold (2009) for piano trio, 6 min.
Ballet for seven dancers, collaboration with choreographer Billy Barry
Premiered at The Juilliard School, December, 2009

 

Kinds of Light (2018) for reed quintet, 10 min
commissioned by Akropolis Quintet and I-Park Foundation

 

Weave (2013) for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, 10 min
collaboration with choreographer Daniel Baker, commissioned by the New York Choreographic Institute

 

Many Voices (2010) for oboe and piano, 5 min.
Premiered by Jennifer Christen and Euntaek Kim

 

Collective Wisdom (2014) for string quintet, 16 minutes.
Commissioned by Sybarite5, Concert Artists Guild, and BMI Foundation

 

Sonata (2008) for flute and piano, 13 min.
Premiered at Carnegie Hall, Weil Recital Hall, April, 2008
Watch a performance by Chelsea Knox and Michael Gilbertson: Mov 1 Mov 2

 

Second Sonata (2012) for flute and piano, 10 min.

 

Three Preludes (2006) for piano, 6 min.
Premiered by Sean Chen, March, 2007

 

Migration Tides (2009) for pierrot ensemble, 7 min.
Commissioned by Aspen Contemporary Ensemble