Passages

Ensemble: for multi-genre soloists and wind ensemble

Duration: 30’

Written: 2023

Commissioned by: the University of Miami Frost School of Music for the Frost Wind Ensemble, Robert M. Carnochan, conductor

Premiered: CBDNA Conference on February 17th, 2023, conducted by Robert M. Carnochan, with Sydney Altbacker, Jose Ignacio, Chad Nelson, and Dizzy Senze, soloists

  1. Babel On

  2. Heights

  3. Fluttering / Hovering

I was thrilled to have the chance to write Passages, a large-scale work for wind ensemble and multi-genre soloists. Over the last decade I have written pieces for ShoutHouse, the ensemble that I direct in New York City, with the goal of creating a collaborative space for hip-hop, jazz, and classical musicians to compose and perform together. It has been a joy to bring the work I do in ShoutHouse to other ensembles and to experiment in the wind ensemble medium through Passages.

When Dr. Robert Carnochan from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami approached me about writing a ShoutHouse-style piece for wind ensemble, I immediately thought about language as a unifying theme for the work. I pictured emcees, a singer, jazz soloists, and dozens of instrumentalists attempting to communicate a single narrative through music and words. That tension and opposition among styles would become a basis for playful structural shifts and dynamic musical conversations. I approached my friends spiritchild and Dizzy Senze, both emcees in New York, and we proposed different stories and themes that could serve as inspiration for each movement of the piece.

The sung texts in this piece were written by spiritchild and set to music by me. As with ShoutHouse performances, the emcee lyrics are always written by the emcees, so while the singer’s lyrics remain the same among performances, the rapped lyrics will change depending on the featured soloist. 

This first movement, “I. Babel On”, centers around the story of the Tower of Babel from the Book of Genesis. It features the singer as a narrator, guiding the dramatic "ow of the story with spiritchild’s texts. As the movement progresses, we travel from unified harmony to discord and alienation, following the story through the lens of multiple soloists.

The second movement, “II. Heights”, begins where the first movement ends, with a feeling of disconnect and breakdown in communication after the fall of universal language and harmony. The emcees represent opposing forces in this movement, bridging the narrative from the shadows at the end of the first movement to the lightness of the third.

When I read spiritchild’s texts for the third movement, “III. Fluttering / Hovering”, I was immediately transported back to a specific moment in my life, many years ago. It was a beautiful autumn week in Brooklyn, and a friend and I decided to drive up to the Adirondacks in upstate New York for a respite from the city. One morning, I woke up, grabbed my manuscript paper, pencil, and a big thermos of coffee, and wandered into the woods. I spent the next eight hours alone, surrounded by pine forests listening to the language of the natural world around me. Sitting on a wooden bridge on the edge of a remote lake, I wrote loud, ecstatic music, my first attempts at writing for full orchestra. In composing the final movement of Passages, I drew inspiration from that moment in the woods, spiritchild’s texts, and the idea of harmony between the languages of the natural world, the human voice, and varying musical styles.

I want to extend my gratitude to Dr. Carnochan for believing in and supporting this project, and to spiritchild for his creativity and dedication to the creation of the texts. I would also like to thank the soloists on the premiere performance—Dizzy Senze, Chad Nelson, Sydney Altbacker, and José Ignacio, for their incredible virtuosity and individual artistic voices that served as inspiration during my writing process.

Previous Performances:

  • February 17, 2023: Frost Wind Ensemble at the University of Miami, conducted by Robert Carnochan, with soloists Chad Nelson and Dizzy Senze (emcees), Sydney Altbacker (singer), and Jose Ignacio (saxophone), performed at the CBDNA 2023 National Conference in Athens, Georgia.

  • November 19, 2023: Arkansas Tech University Symphonic Wind Ensemble, conducted by Daniel A. Belongia, featuring soloists spiritchild and Chad Nelson (emcees), Patricia Loera (singer), and Sean Scot Reed (trombone).

  • November 30, 2023: University of Wisconsin-Madison Wind Ensemble, conducted by Scott Teeple, with soloists DeShawn McKinney and Nia Scott (emcees), Deja Mason (singer), and Pawan Benjamin (saxophone).

  • December 10, 2023: West Chester University Wind Ensemble, conducted by Andrew Yozviak, with soloists Brandon Olmeda (emcee), Megan McDevitt (singer), and Jonathan Ragonese (saxophone).

  • February 18, 2024: Louisiana State University Wind Ensemble, conducted by Damon Talley, featuring spiritchild and Anthony R. Green (emcees), Elaina Bachman (singer), and Doug Stone (saxophone).

  • November 17, 2024: Illinois State University Wind Symphony, conducted by Anthony C. Marinello III, with soloists spiritchild and Deshawn McKinney (emcees), Isabella Green (singer), and Darius Botley (saxophone).

  • February 22, 2025: Belmont University Wind Ensemble, conducted by Barry Kraus, featuring soloists Duffy and El Chino (emcees), Catherine Sherling (singer), and Alex Graham (saxophone), performed at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts in Nashville, Tennessee.

  • February 28, 2025: California State University, Fullerton Wind Symphony, conducted by Dustin Barr, featuring spiritchild and Dizzy Senze (emcees), Amber Napoli (singer), and Victor Gonzalez (saxophone).