"Orbit"
from A Trip to the Moon
Cast Size: 12+
Instrumentation:
Keyboard 1/Conductor
Violin
Cello
Guitar 1 (solid-body electric, steel-string acoustic)
Keyboard 2/Guitar 2 (solid-body electric)
Bass (upright, fretless, 5-string fretted)
Drums/Percussion (drum set, glockenspiel, triangle, anvil, brake drum, spiral trash cymbal,
large spring drum)
Credits: Zofia Weretka (vocals), Adam J. Rineer (synthesizers), Meghan Todt Williams (violin), Giovanna Morgana Clayton (cello), Juan Arango (guitars), Thomas E. Carley (bass), Joshua Roberts (drums)
Do we all have a place in the universe? If so, where is it? And what happens when the lives of a queer Victorian-era astronomer, a Lunar Goddess, and a skeptical young alien collide during one pivotal journey to the moon? Through an eclectic score that combines punk, prog rock, and 19th-century operetta, this piece loosely inspired by George Méliès's film La Voyage dans la Lune explores "man's" desire to conquer, the fascination of space, and the breaking binaries.
In "Orbit", we meet Selene, the Goddess of the Moon and the Moon herself, after a few million years of orbiting the Earth.
Introspections
Instrumentation:
Fixed Media
In the midst of the events around COVID-19 and the new wave of the Black Lives Matter movement, Introspections was a 9-week installment of 1-minute electronic pieces posted on Instagram from June 12th to August 10th during the summer of 2020. As an exploration of spontaneous creation, these Introspections were composed sequentially while in quarantine to inspire meditative thought and personal growth. Utilizing a tone row to build various themes and chord progressions, each of the movements explores the intersection of atmospheric and groove-based music. Though not intended to be performed, a form of notation was used to give a visualization of sound and compositional thought.
Introspections
Introspections
Introspection No. 1
Introspection No. 2
Introspection No. 3
Introspection No. 4
Rhiannon's Suite
for The Handmaid Rhiannon by Rachel Graf Evans
Instrumentation:
Acoustic Piano
Synthesizer (artificial harp, dark pad, ambient plucked strings)
Percussion (glockenspiel, chimes, concert bass drum, suspended crash cymbal)
From Rachel Graf Evans: “Daphne thinks she's been summoned to the Palace for a Princess eligibility contest she's unlikely to win. Eloïse, meanwhile, thinks she's meeting, greeting, and dressing her future Queen for the Royal Wedding. A sweet one-act about two young women who form an unlikely bond as they navigate the messy waters of expectation, duty, and how to love.”
With a scene description of "some distant yet eerily familiar era, like feeling déjà vu tomorrow," this score pulls sounds from past and present to create an unsettling landscape for this unrequited queer love story.