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Lewis String Quartet No. 1.5, "Experiments in Living"

Performed July, 2023 at Tanglewood's Seiji Ozawa Hall by the New Fromm Players.

Mozart Clarinet Quintet, K. 581

Performed June, 2025 in Milan, Italy with San Marco Chamber Music Society.

Ah, bella Italia...my first time across the pond with several performances throughout Italy. I love new music, but I play plenty of older things with great pleasure, too, so I was delighted to have been invited to spend two weeks touring around and playing with the San Marco Chamber Music Society. I was new to going on tour in this manner, so I made a video chronicling it, which you can check out here.

Graham Manual

Performed August, 2022 at Tanglewood's Seiji Ozawa Hall with Elana Bell and Dominic Aragon.

This was one of my favorite projects during my two summers as a New Fromm Player at Tanglewood. Composer Ash Graham wrote this piece based upon...well, I'll let them tell you about it, as printed in the notes on Soundcloud:

Manual is a reaction against approaching text-setting as a completely prescriptive procedure. There are, of course, many ways to approach this topic, but I was intrigued with the idea of using antiquated repair manuals as a template for abstraction. I noticed that many of the texts I found featured a form of dated, almost comedic impartiality which is a massive contrast to the typically dry and factual nature of modern instructional manuals. I sought to amplify these qualities by exaggerating the onomatopoeic elements of each excerpt and by giving each of the performers a variety of unconventional roles.

I am reasonably sure that this experience was the first and only time I've given a monologue while performing chamber music. But who knows...maybe it wasn't the last. Another thing I loved about this piece was the multipurpose nature of the musicians. That is, besides speaking and playing my instrument, I had rocks as an ancillary percussion instrument, and the singers doubled on piano, in addition to having their own stones and speaking roles. I guess this goes to show that 3 people on a stage can do quite a lot.

Nabors Sonata

Recorded 2020 at New World Center with Wesley Ducote.

I have been privileged to have a long friendship and musical partnership with Wesley Ducote, a fabulous pianist based in Florida, who was a New World Fellow at the same time I was. Wesley, like myself, focuses heavily on the music of our times, and he introduced me to this sonata back in 2020. We both loved the piece, and quickly set to work on it. Plus, we both got to work with Brian, with whom we ended up becoming friendly (and who, by chance, ended up as a Tanglewood Fellow with me in 2021).

Nabors Freedom Is Breathing

Recorded 2022 at New World Center with Emilio Carlo and Phoebe Powell.

I was asked a bit later in my fellowship to join in for a performance of another Nabors piece with the instrumentation of viola, cello, and harp. This piece, noted by Brian to be an elegy, was dedicated to George Floyd following his tragic murder, and it grapples profoundly with the injustices that led to his senseless death, and that pervade to this day. There is more context to this piece, but instead of me summarizing it, I recommend visiting the composer's website to learn more about the work, its background, and the critically important change for which it advocates.