fiddle (2014)

for String Quartet

ca. 8 min.​

Purchase score and parts (USD27) from United Music & Media Publishers (Belgium)

First Prize, 2016 Malta International Composition Competition (Malta)

2017 SEM Emerging Composers Workshop Call for Scores (USA)

28th International Review of Composers Call for Scores (Serbia)

Kaleidoscope Call for Scores 2020 Finalist (USA)

I find myself standing in a small room; dark enough for my eyes to have to take some time to start seeing where I am. I see mirrors of every size cloak the walls, the ceiling, and the floor, reflecting endlessly in all directions. At the heart of the room rests a delicate wind-up toy of a ballerina, poised and waiting in a perfect suspended animation. I take three steps forward and kneel to wind the toy’s spring. Slowly and methodically, the ballerina begins to twirl clockwise.

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I place her on the floor, watching her steady herself as I retreat. To my astonishment, her spin quickens, the rhythm tightening into a ceaseless spiral. The same brief motif loops over and over, each cycle locking into the next, as if chasing its own tail. Across every mirror in the room, the ballerina multiplies - her spinning reflections whirling faster and faster, each an echo of the other, lost in perpetual motion.

The inspiration for "fiddle" first struck me after encountering J.J. Grandville’s 19th-century work "Apocalypse du ballet", where a ballerina spins to transform continuously, unfolding in disorienting, dream-like beauty. In "fiddle", the repetition of a single motif becomes the essence - a fixation where even the smallest variation or an unexpected silence feels like an accent, a shift that disrupts the trance.

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In 2016, "fiddle" was awarded First Prize at the Malta International Composition Competition and later published by United Music & Media Publishers (Belgium). 

June 22, 2014 (World Premiere)

Chatori Shimizu Portrait Concert 2014

Ryogoku Monten Hall, Tokyo, Japan

Quartet Pienno: Kaho Orido (Vn. I), Kasumi Sakakibara (Vn. II), Vla. Kengo Naito, Vc. Akira Sato)

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April 16, 2016 (US Premiere)

Project ONKYO

[Video Archive]

Issue Project Room Space, New York, NY

Mivos Quartet: Olivia De Prato (Vn. I), Marco Fusi (Vn. II), Victor Lowrie (Vla.), Mariel Roberts (Vc.)​

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May 15, 2016 (Puerto Rico Premiere)

De Japón A Puerto Rico

Conservatorio de Música, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Cuarteto de Cuerdas Areté: Danira Rodriguez (Vn. I), Nayomi Lozano (Vn. II), Miguel Gonzales (Vla.), Diego F. Marrero (Vc.)

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Feb. 16, 2017

New Works by Emerging Composers

Willow Place Auditorium, New York, NY

S.E.M Ensemble: Pauline Kim Harris (Vn I), Robyn Quinnett (Vn. II), Bryla-Weiss (Vla.), Caleb van der Swaagh (Vc.)

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Oct. 7, 2019

28th International Review of Composers

Composers' Association of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia

Tijana Milošević (Vn I), Ksenija Milošević (Vn II), Boris Brezovac (Vla.), Nemanja Stanković (Vc.)