Piano Trio No. 2

Commissioned by Ann and Bill Van Ness for the Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival

Year

2026

Duration

15 minutes

My first piano trio (River Songs) was commissioned by the Ocean Reef Festival in 2015. For my second piano trio, I looked to Italy, specifically Venice, for
inspiration. Venice is an evocative and atmospheric place that inspired countless composers, including Monteverdi, Vivaldi, Mendelssohn, and
Benjamin Britten, who wrote the opera Death in Venice and died in Venice himself.
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To open and close the work, it felt fitting to turn to the barcarolle, which evokes the singing of Venetian gondoliers. The first movement opens with a nod to Venice's grandeur and mystery; a gentle and wistful song emerges from the dense texture that precedes it. The second movement imagines rats scurrying along the canal: "zampettare" translates to "scamper." The third movement evokes stillness and the dead of night with crystalline chords and a slow-moving chorale. The final movement, an elegy, presents a second barcarolle, this time more
searching and longing. I pay musical homage to Britten here, and more broadly imagine a sense of loss for the city, once opulent and grand, slowly fading in glory and receding into water.

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This work was premiered by Mihaela Martin, Christopher Costanza, and Anne-Marie McDermott in January 2026.

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Chamber Works

2026

Three Ancient Dances, for guitar and string quartet

Commissioned by Agarita for guitarist Pablo Saínz-Villegas and Agarita Ensemble

Piano Trio No. 2

Chamber Works

Three Ancient Dances, for guitar and string quartet

Piano Trio No. 2

String Quintet

'Til it was dark, for quintet

Arietta, for bass and string quartet

Dream Sequence

Afterword, for two violins and piano

String Quartet No. 4

Brilena, for string quartet or string trio

Thirty Thousand Days

Duet, for violin and cello (or viola and cello)

String Quartet No. 3

A Fish Will Rise, for flute, clarinet, and piano

Constellations, for clarinet, viola, and piano

Canzonetta, for saxophone quartet

Nocturnal Prayer, for cello and piano

River Songs, for piano trio

Fishing, for narrator, clarinet, cello, and piano

String Quartet No. 2

Summer Night Music, for piano quartet

once, for violin and piano

A Song For A Friend, for cello and piano

In Passing, for Pierrot ensemble and percussion

String Quartet No. 1

Lullaby: No Bad Dreams, for violin and piano

Fractured Light, for viola and piano

Four Autumn Landscapes, for clarinet and piano

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