Omens

I. Air

II. Feedback Loop

III. Metal Canyons

IV. Dopamine

I wrote “Omens" in 2017, during my last year at Juilliard. My teacher, John Corigliano, was encouraging me to write a piece in variation form, one based on a purely musical idea with an overarching structure that connected the movements. I set off to do just that in this piece, using an upward, three-note gesture and minor third motif to connect the movements. As I wrote, however, I couldn’t resist some programmatic inspirations, using environmental and social issues to frame each movement.

The first movement, “Air”, relates both to my love of Bach’s Goldberg Variations and particulates in the air we breathe. As the movement progresses, the simple melody in the right hand is engulfed by flurries of notes, until it is hardly recognizable. In “Feedback Loops”, the minor-third motive in the opening movement’s theme moves down into the bass, churning and spinning wildly out of control. “Metal Canyons” is a stark, empty, and lonely movement, mostly written while I was on a camping trip in The Grand Canyon in January of that year. The final movement, “Dopamine”, engages with our increasingly short attention spans, with warbling, distracted, and ever-changing musical materials.

“Omens” is dedicated to Dennis Malone, who was my piano teacher from age 4 to 18. Without Dennis’s bright teaching style, genuine love of music, and encouragement, I never would have become a musician. I premiered the piece at the Abby Whiteside Foundation Concert at Carnegie’s Weill Hall in March 2017, in a concert shared with Dennis, Keiji Ishiguri, and Gabriel Zucker.