Pacific Composers: Spring Premieres
Tuesday I May 2, 2023 I 7:30 pm
Faye Spanos Concert Hall
Featuring original works by Pacific student composers:
Jordan Hendrickson, Ian Orejana, Skylar Warren, Logan Adams, Michael Robertson, Miranda Duarte, Ethan Chaz Cisneros, Alayna Ontai, Ealaph Tabbaa, Leo Cox, Donald Parker, and Mary Denney
Andrew Conklin: Composition Program Director
Sea Madness (2023) I. II. III.
Emma Young, violin
Judy Kim, piano
Jordan Hendrickson ’25
Through the Sea (2023)
Takeoff (2023)
Yoshiki Shimokawa, trumpet
Owen Sheridan, horn
William Giancaterino, trombone
Ian Orejana ’26
Ian Orejana ’26
Empty Space (2023)
Ian Orejana, voice
Yoshiki Shimokawa, trumpet
Owen Sheridan, horn
William Giancaterino, trombone
Ian Orejana ’26
Morning Rain (2023)
Braydon Ross, Reese Romero, horns
Emma Northcutt, Liam Shaughnessy, violins
Samantha Tse, viola
Daniel Hui, cello
Skylar Warren ’25
Brass Trio (2023)
Kylie Ward, trumpet
Skylar Warren, horn
Matthew Miramontes, trombone
Logan Adams ’24
The Cormorant (2023)
Nikki Ikeda, soprano
Ella Hebrard, bassoon
Michael Robertson ’24
The Road Not Taken (2023)
Rose Dickson, soprano
Marcella Stone-Fox, violin
Jordan Hendrickson ’25
Étude de Nick (2023)
Nick Trobaugh, cello
Miranda Duarte ’26
The Kind (2023)
Charlotte Han, violin
Jordan Wier, bassoon
Joseph Kruse, piano
Autumn Breeze (2023)
Apollo Parish Mitchell, oboe
Braydon Ross, horn
Magdalene Myint, piano
Intermission
Alayna
Teddy Bear (2023)
Miranda Duarte, voice
Zoie Macapanpan, voice
Alex Maldonado, trumpet
Nick Trobaugh, cello
Kyle Saelee, bass
Ben Shafer, keyboard
Don Parker, guitar
Bergen Finley, drums
String Quartet in G minor (2023)
Charlotte Han, Emma Northcutt, violins
Ealaph Tabbaa, viola
Daniel Hui, cello
Short Dragon Fist (2023)
Phoenix Farris, flute
Jordan Hendrickson, cello
Robin Bisho, Leo Cox, percussion
Voices (2023)
Braydon Ross, horn
Donald Parker, guitar
Phoenix Farris, flute; Abigail Miller, clarinet
Jordan Wier, bassoon; Skylar Warren, horn
Matthew Miramontes, conductor
Donald
Starcatching (2023)
Reese Romero, Skylar Warren, Edgar Leyva, Owen Sheridan, Jada Ramos, Donald Parker, Mary Denney, horns
Yoshiki Shimokawa, Parker Deems, Alayna Ontai, trumpets
Victor Alcaraz, William Giancaterino, trombones
Jayden Laumeister, bass trombone
Braydon Ross, conductor
Ethan Chaz Cisneros ’26 Ontai ’26 Miranda Duarte ’26 Ealaph Tabbaa ’24 Leo Cox ’24 Parker ’26 Mary Denney ‘24When I was just starting to compose, at fourteen years old, I told my teacher I wanted to write music that was “both enjoyable to listen to and fun to play.” I hope and believe I’ve achieved that with Sea Madness for violin and piano. I began writing this piece in December of 2022, after telling my friend Emma Young that I wanted to write something for her to play. After a few months of writing, revising, rewriting, and polishing, the piece took shape. It is a work in three movements, following a fast-slow-fast pattern. In the first movement, I wanted to convey grandeur and tension; in the second, a more sparse and mellow vibe; and in the third, blazing intensity. The title, Sea Madness, holds significance not because of any intended visual to go along with the music, but because it is a phrase that bounced around in my head while composing the piece, and after writing the music, I found that it fit the moods and textures very well.
Ian Orejana Through the Sea, Takeoff, Empty Space
The challenge for Through the Sea was for it to be homorhythmic. I came up with the first melody, which you can hear in the intro, and it expanded from there. As I was writing it, I could imagine pirates and a ship trudging through the waves, hence the title. I really enjoyed the challenge of this song as it allowed me to find new ways of homorhythmically.
Takeoff started out as a short project in my music tech class. Inspired by the K-pop music I listen to, I wanted to make a song using modal mixture to capture the feeling of flight. Once I started working the trio, I realized that the brass instruments would sound great with what I was going for.
Empty Space is about that feeling where you just need someone to fill in the void. It is heavily inspired by an experience I had at the beginning of the school year and how I feel now after the fact. I thought the sound of the brass trio would add a nice touch.
Skylar Warren Morning Rain
A quiet dawn, gazing out the window at the gray landscape. The soft sounds of morning rain quiet your mind. You swear you can almost hear a melody drifting in and out of the noise. This two-movement piece explores the bridge between noise and music. The music begins with noise and paves a road to and from the colorful
melodies of the strings and horns. This Baroque ensemble has a unique color palette that lends itself to this melancholic interpretation of a morning rain.
Michael Robertson The CormorantThis piece was inspired by seeing cormorants every day, sitting on a telephone wire over the Calaveras river. It’s not the kind of bird I’d expect to see in a place like that, since they’re pretty big. I had a lot of fun writing this piece, not shying away from sillier sounding ideas.
Jordan Hendrickson The Road Not TakenThe Road Not Taken is a well-known poem by Robert Frost (1874–1963). It was first published in 1916 and has been quoted widely and loved deeply in the 100-plus years since its publishing. While choosing a poem to set for this work, I explored poems from a wide range of eras, but one constant stayed with me throughout my research: I wanted to find a poem with meaning, which expressed something deep and not so easily explained. I wanted a poem that begged for music to be added to it. When I read The Road Not Taken, I knew I had found the perfect piece to work with. The poem itself is describing a moment that would take place outdoors, but it is introspective. There is no flashiness, no showing off, no mention of outside forces or other people. The poem is simply a moment, alone with oneself, pondering the implications of the decision you’re about to make. For this material, I chose to use a folk-inspired style—particularly, the use of open strings in the violin and a relatively simple, catchy melody for the soprano. The pairing of soprano and violin is a bit of an unusual combination, but I found that it worked extremely well for the style and tone of the piece. The purpose of The Road Not Taken (both the poem and the song), in my opinion, is to express that even small choices—like which path to take or which poem to set—can be meaningful, and it is important to put thought and care into each decision, because it can make all the difference.
Donald Parker VoicesVoices is a piece featuring horn and guitar with a wind quartet. There is an improvised section where the musicians are given a graphic and improvise their own lines based on their own interpretations.
Starcatching is bona fide space music, inspired by the many nights I spent stargazing in the fields of the Willamette Valley where I grew up, looking up at the multitudes of glittering constellations that make up the night sky. The piece begins with a glacial, metallic trumpet feature that expands into the wider cosmos above, traveling through the stars in a bright 3/4 section that grows into a massive explosion, and then returns back down to Earth. This piece also features aleatoric sections where each player’s different sounds make up those constellations, each star twinkling at its own pace.
—Notes by the composers
PACIFIC FACULTY
Composition Faculty
Andrew Conklin: Program Director
Hendel Almetus
Eric Wood
Ensemble Coaches
Kyle Bruckmann
Ann Miller
Lenny Ott
Sadie Glass
Bruce Chrisp
Eric Dudley
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UPCOMING CONSERVATORY EVENTS
May 6 | 2:00 pm
Pacific Arts Woodwind Quintet and friends
50th Anniversary Concert
Faye Spanos Concert Hall