Chronological / Works in Progress / ​Musical Documentary / Solo / Small Ensemble / Large Ensemble / Opera, Voice, Chorus / Orchestra / Theater and Dance / Fixed Media / Film / Video Library 

Expand on the right of each work for available listening, viewing, and program notes.
Published scores are available through Schott's PSNY. For unpublished scores, email [email protected]

new work for NY Philharmonic (WIP) 
Commissioned by New York Philharmonic, Project 19
Prepared instruments / TBD

Sound ON: Be Prepared! Sound and stimulation are set to “on” at this new-music series at The Appel Room, overlooking Central Park. The second season begins with Philharmonic musicians performing music for prepared instruments, including in World Premieres by Mary Kouyoumdjian and Melinda Wagner, commissioned by the Philharmonic as part of Project 19, and works from the 20th and 21st centuries — in a concert hosted and curated by Nadia Sirota, Creative Partner. ​

ADORATION (2019-WIP) 
Commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects & Opera AMERICA
Opera: ensemble cast, amplified string quartet, audio playback / Evening Length

An adaptation of Atom Egoyan’s film of the same name, ADORATION follows Simon, an orphaned high school student. As part of a dramatic writing exercise, Simon’s teacher encourages him to appropriate details from a historical terrorist attack as an event perpetrated by his parents. When his story goes viral, Simon uses the hysteria within his community and on the internet to highlight the challenges of intolerance and racism in our society. The fictional and actual circumstances of the loss of Simon’s family are revealed in fragments, only fitting together with the final revelation that the prejudices of Simon’s maternal grandfather led to his parents’ deaths.​ Hate is too often portrayed as binary. We either hate or we don’t. We hate someone for something they did or some perceived slight, or we hate “the other.” Yet we are not born with hate—it is learned, nurtured, and developed over the course of a lifetime. ADORATION tells two simultaneous stories—a fictional story of terrorism and betrayal juxtaposed with a real story of family strife and rejection of something foreign.
​
Adoration is supported, in part, by an OPERA America Opera Grants for Female Composers Award, funded by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, and an OPERA America Project Repertoire Development Grant. ​

Paper Pianos (2016-WIP) 
Commissioned by Alarm Will Sound/ in residence at EMPAC / in collaboration with director and writer Nigel Maister and projection artist Kevork Mourad
Amplified sinfonietta, audio playback, film, staging/ 90'

​Paper Pianos is an evening-length multimedia work exploring the dislocation, longing, and optimism of refugees. The piece combines narratives from four refugees and resettlement workers: the Afghan pianist Milad Yousufi, Getachew Bashir (Ethiopia), Hani Ali (Somalia), and Akil Aljaysh (Iraq). Recordings of the protagonists from interviews conducted by creators Mary Kouyoumdjian (composer) and Nigel Maister (text and staging) are incorporated with the intricate hand-drawn animations of visual artist Kervork Mourad to vividly depict the dramatic emotional landscape of displacement and resettlement experienced by refugees throughout the world.
Milad Yousufi fled to New York from Kabul, where he lived under the Taliban’s threat for pursuing music. His story of painting piano keys on paper to teach himself to play in silence, thus avoiding life-threatening censure from the authorities, gives the piece its name. Getachew Bashir, a high-ranking judge in Ethiopia, left his country when the judiciary and his independence threatened to become co-opted by the regime. Hani Ali was a child of the refugee experience, born on the run and coming of age as a young girl negotiating the terrors of being stateless in a displacement camp. Akil Aljaysh—from a prominent family—fled Iraq after being tortured, and worked his way through Syria and Lebanon to the US. The testimonies of these men and women, recounted to Kouyoumdjian and Maister in field recordings they made in New York and Rochester, form the basis of a narrative that is integrated into the live musical performance. Paper Pianos further incorporates the extraordinary hand drawings of Kevork Mourad which animate the narrative, evoke the journeys of the participants, and serve as a physical element with which Alarm Will Sound’s musicians interact.

Supported, in part, through a Pacific Harmony Foundation commission grant; the National Endowment for the Arts; a New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artists Composer Commission Award with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; New Music USA; and by a project grant from The MAP Fund. The MAP Fund is primarily supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Additional funds come from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

WALKING WITH GHOSTS (2022)
Commissioned by ONE FOUND SOUND and MINNESOTA PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA, WITH ADDITIONAL SUPPORT BY STEVEN AND BRENDA SCHICK
Bass clarinet concerto for soloist and orchestra/ 15'

Walking with Ghosts is a reflection on the people, experiences, and histories that follow us throughout our lives––whether we walk with their support or carry the burden of their weight. This piece is dedicated to Jeff Anderle, whom I walk with in creativity and in friendship. ​

AND THERE WAS (2021) 
Commissioned by BANG ON A CAN FOR CELLIST ARLEN HLUSKO
SOLO CELLO DOUBLING ON VOICE/ 4'30"

Written for cellist Arlen Hlusko, and there was pulls its text from playwright Dominic Finocchiaro's play Found Dog Ribbon Dance.

and there was this space
where that something used to be

HILL AND VALLEY (2021) 
Commissioned by RANDY and JAN MCNALLY FOR THE KNOXVILLE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
SOLO VIOLa / 4'

Written for violist Hillary Herndon.

I wander o'oer hill and valley
        – William Wetmore Story​

Ervoom em (I am Burning) - A Song Cycle made in Quarantine (2020)
Fixed media with field recordings and self-recorded voice, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, mandolin, accordion, percussion, & electronics / 17'

Ervoom em (I am Burning) is a quarantine project made at a time in which composing for commissions that would either be cancelled or postponed due to the pandemic felt... difficult. It's an attempt to reawaken a teenage version of myself that simply enjoyed electro-pop and playing all of the instruments I had access to. 

This piece is also a reflection on loss - not just of those great losses that we have experienced during the pandemic, but of my ancestral homes and culture. This summer I lost family in the explosion in Beirut, ancestral Armenian lands and the tip of a second Armenian genocide due to the Nagorno-Karabakh War, and places I grew up in that burned during the California wildfires. 

Text excerpted from Komitas from the turn of the 20th century -  Armenian genocide survivor, poet, musician, and priest. Field recordings recorded by myself in Armenia and of an Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh war protest in NYC this October. Much of my work involves documentary around the Armenian genocide, and this current war has reframed all of it. All voice and instrumental parts clumsily and joyously recorded by myself while quarantining during the pandemic (voice, flute, clarinet, accordion, mandolin, violin, cello, percussion, electronics). I am not a professional singer or instrumentalist by any means, but I wanted to try to create something new, without pressure, and that truly celebrated exploration and playfulness to process conflict.

1. Achkeris koon chi kalis / Ervoom em - Sleep escapes my eyes / I am burning
2. [Interlude] “Sanction Turkey”
3. Sirds haladz - My melted heart
4. Tsoon chi kali - It is not snowing
5. Sirds haladz - My heart is melted
6. Sirds garagov letsvadz / Sirds gragadz mnats - My heart is filled with fire / My heart stays in flames
7. Ambi dagin tsoon gereva - Snow is beginning to appear beneath the clouds​​

Mary Kouyoumdjian · Ervoom em (I am Burning) / a song cycle recorded in quarantine

WATER AND DUST (2020)
COMMISSIONED BY SAMUEL ADAMS & HELEN KIM
SOLO VIOLIN AND DANCE / 4'

Water and Dust pulls its inspiration from author and journalist Mark Arax's book The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California, which was recommended by dear friend Samuel Adams upon discovering our shared upbringing in the Bay Area. Arax investigates the water crisis and interweaves his family's narrative as Armenian immigrants to California – Water and Dust draws from personal memories of driving the dry stretches of farmland on Highway 5 with my own Armenian family's relocation to the state. Special thanks to collaborators Post:Ballet, the San Francisco Symphony, and especially to the extraordinary violinist Helen Kim, who so thoughtfully gives this piece its grit and flow.​​

I Haven't the Words (2020) 
String quartet arrangement commissioned by Kronos Quartet / 5'30"
Version 1: Piano solo
​Version 2: String Quartet

A sonic journal entry

They Will Take My Island (2020) 
Commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in collaboration with filmmaker Atom Egoyan
amplified string octet, audio playback, film/ 30'

​They Will Take My Island is a collaboration between myself and filmmaker Atom Egoyan over our mutual admiration of the Armenian painter Arshile Gorky, who has been highly influential to both of our work. The work integrates: (1) audio and film footage from Egoyan’s films Ararat, a film that explores the life of Arshile Gorky in the context of the Armenian genocide and modern life, and A Portrait of Arshile, a film Egoyan and his wife Arsinée Khanjian made in dedication to their son, named after the painter; (2) interviews conducted and recorded by the myself with art historians and family of Gorky’s.
 
It is an honor to work with both of these artists: Gorky’s resilience in surviving the Armenian Genocide and living to create such meaningful and impactful work has stayed in my heart since seeing his work for the first time in Egoyan’s film Ararat nearly twenty years ago. Through this film, Egoyan became my first role model of a living Armenian artist who speaks loudly through pulling his heritage into contemporary and socially complex narratives. As Saskia Spender, President of the Arshile Gorky Foundation and granddaughter of Gorky, says in her interview for this piece: “When people are not in a position to talk about truths, perhaps because there is a political or conflict situation, then the artists are the truth tellers.”
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Collaborator and Film by: Atom Egoyan
Film Edited by: Cameron Davis
Interviews Recorded and Edited by: Mary Kouyoumdjian     
Interviewees: Parker Field, Saskia Spender, Michael Taylor
Audio Samples Include: Interviews and audio from Egoyan’s films Ararat and A Portrait of Arshile


Commissioned by the Live Arts Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and premiered by The Met on January 26, 2021 ​

They Would Only Walk (2020)
Commissioned by Buffalo String Works
amplified string quintet, string orchestra, and audio playback/ 10'

They Would Only Walk is written for and in dedication to the community of Buffalo String Works. This piece was developed through a residency with BSW, an organization that provides string classes to children of refugee families in Buffalo, NY. Students and I worked together to workshop extended techniques and sounds that would evoke feelings of travel. Refugee families – both adults and children - generously volunteered to share their journeys to Buffalo and the meaning of music in their lives. Recorded interviews narrate this piece created for this extraordinary community. ​

DARLING (2020)
Commissioned by Helen Simoneau Danse, created in close collaboration with violinists Andie Tanning and Austin Wulliman, voice Mary Kouyoumdjian
sampled voice and violins in fixed media audio playback/ 60'

DARLING is a piece for dance that explores vulnerability and intimacy through the presence and absence of touch. The work also intends the audience to question their assumptions about the relationships between strength, power, gender and size. The score was created in close collaboration with violinists Andie Tanning and Austin Wulliman through sampling recordings of guided improvisation sessions.​
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Mary Kouyoumdjian · Darling (for Helen Simoneau Danse)

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Mustard Sweatshirts Are Forever (2019)
Commissioned by American Composers Forum for Roomful of Teeth's 10th Anniversary at Mass MoCA
acapella voice octet/ 10'

In this past year, I have made a promise to myself to really get to know the performers I collaborate with – not just as extraordinary musicians, but also as extraordinary human beings. Let the record show, that the members of Roomful of Teeth are in fact extraordinary. The libretto is comprised of interviews with each of the members of Teeth. Conversations included everything from individual backgrounds, to thoughtful sentiments for their colleagues, and personal reflections. It’s my humble hope that this piece is not only an exercise for the members of Teeth to internalize their bandmates’ words, but for the audience to get to know these beautiful people as well.
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Mary Kouyoumdjian · Mustard Sweatshirts Are Forever (Perf. by Roomful of Teeth)

You Came into My Dream (2019)
Written for Brooklyn Brass Quintet
open brass ensemble, audio playback/ 10'

My strongest memories of Matt Marks as a French horn player are not those of his virtuosic performances as a soloist and member of various new music ensembles, but those of Matt practicing common long tones on an F Major scale while watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine with the closed captions on. This piece samples scratch recordings of Matt playing horn is dedicated the to the members of Brooklyn Brass Quintet (his brothers).
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Mary Kouyoumdjian · You Came into My Dream (Perf. by Brooklyn Brass Quintet)

Peony (2019)
Commissioned by National Flute Association for the 2019 High School Soloist Competition
amplified flute, audio playback/ 5'20"

Peony ​is a celebration of life after loss. This piece is in dedication to flutist and dear friend Katie Cox, whose beautiful garden full of peonies in Fairbanks, Alaska celebrates exactly that.

"Pleasures of Plenty" from Words on the Street (2018)
Commissioned by HERE Arts
soprano, piano/ 4'

A hybrid-musical theater work of music by composer Matt Marks and poet Anna Robinowitz, in which several composers were asked to come together to complete the score that had been left unfinished after Matt's passing. Words on the Street is a mystery show in which all of humanity is complicit. 

The Revolt of the Stars (2018)
Commissioned by Caitlin Sullivan
cello (doubling on voice), audio playback/ 5'30"

The Revolt of the Stars is inspired by the Armenian fable by the same name, in which the stars unite in an attempt to outshine the sun and the moon. The fable questions the effectiveness of 'strength in numbers' when a group that lacks strength in spirit rises up against those in positions of power.
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Mary Kouyoumdjian · The Revolt of the Stars (Perf. by Caitlyn Sullivan)

to open myself, to scream (2017)
Commission by Music of Remembrance, in collaboration with projection artist Kevork Mourad
clarinet, trumpet, violin, cello, contrabass, audio playback, and film / 30'

i. I dream of living
ii. We were ashamed
iii. In the shadows of a smoking crematorium
iv. Auschwitz is only sleeping

to open myself, to scream is a portrait piece on Romani artist, writer, musician, and Holocaust survivor Ceija Stojka. What draws me to Stojka’s work are her themes of longing for the past and coping with the aftermath of unimaginable trauma. As a granddaughter of Armenian genocide survivors, such themes felt familiar to me within my own culture and family history, and these are common themes in other cultures that have and are continuing to experience mass exterminations. I am a firm believer in the arts as a medium for change, and I hope to continue the conversation about how we sympathize with those who experience the unimaginable, and how we can pull from the past to move forward.
 
Each movement is inspired by various paintings of Stojka’s – from her paintings that celebrate her free and vibrant Romani life, to those that explore the horrific experiences she endured during the Holocaust. Composed for mixed ensemble and electronic track, the music often integrates elements of folk music within a contemporary musical language. The ensemble members play amplified with prerecorded samples of themselves – performing in the present while engaging with the past. Inspired by Stojka’s fond memories of her mother, who would calm her with her singing, a distant and intangible voice presents itself throughout the work. The music alternates between polarities of bliss and tragedy, in an effort to understand Stojka’s unique perspective, and draws on imagery related to family, community, nature, the seasons, fear, nakedness, and shame. The piece and movements are titled after Stojka’s own words.
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Mary Kouyoumdjian · to open myself, to scream (Perf. by Music of Remembrance)

The Vanishing Dark (2017)
Written for Talea Ensemble
flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet/voice, trombone, percussion, piano, violin, cello, contrabass, and audio playback/ 8'

The Vanishing Dark is inspired by the podcast episode of the same name from the Nocturne​ podcast series. This work is an exploration of the loss of natural darkness, our diminishing comfort with the dark, and our false sense of security with artificial light.
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Red on Red (2017)
Written for Jordan Morley, choreographed by Jordan Morley
fixed media, dance / 10'

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I Can Barely Look (2016)
Commissioned by Brooklyn Youth Chorus and WQXR with support of the MAP Fund
chorus (soprano/alto), flute, clarinet, baritone saxophone, bassoon, percussion, piano, violin, cello, contrabass / 10'

An exploration of how we, particularly youth, sympathize with the Syrian refugee crisis. Members of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus were presented with a collection of media-circulated photos of Syrian refugees. They were asked to respond to a series of questions about the photos, and their responses were then used to create the libretto for this work.
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Paper Pianos: "You are not a kid" (2016)
Commission by Alarm Will Sound and the Mizzou International Composers Festival
flute/piccolo, oboe, clarinet/bass clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, bass trombone, two percussionists, piano, violin 1, violin 2/voice, viola/voice, cello, contrabass, conductor, and electronic playback/ 10'

A portrait piece about Milad Yousufi, a young refugee from Kabul, Afghanistan whose life was threatened by the Taliban for pursuing music. According to the Taliban, music is forbidden in Islam. "You are not a kid" is the first movement of a larger work sharing Milad's incredible life story. It focuses primarily on his childhood during the civil war and integrates a prerecorded backing track excerpted from my interview with him.
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"Where Once" from Gorky (2016)
Libretto by Royce Vavrek / written for loadbang
​baritone voice, bass clarinet, trumpet, trombone, electronic playback / 10'

An imagined monologue for Arshile Gorky as he is painting his mother’s likeness in “The Artist and his Mother.”  The lyrics are constructed from imagined memories, and contain a sense of poetic revisionism, functioning like a eulogy for the greatest loss of Gorky’s young life.  Through the aria we get to see Gorky’s psychological process as he symbolically returns his mother to the familiar landscape of Lake Van.
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The Heaviness of Air (2015)
Commissioned by The Charles and Joan Gross Foundation for Periapsis Music and Dance, choreographed by Helen Simoneau
amplified cello, audio playback / 5'

​A snapshot of what a few moments of living with limited movement could feel like.
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For Audrey (2015)
Commissioned by Audrey Q. Snyder / In collaboration with filmmaker XUAN
cello, piano, and film / 5'

Dedicated to cellist and dear friend Audrey Q. Snyder. For the New Music//New Film initiative, with film (in progress) by Xuan.

Become Who I Am (2015)
Commission by Brooklyn Youth Chorus for BYC and Kronos Quartet
chorus (soprano/alto), string quartet, audio playback / 10'

There are many factors that can contribute to gender inequality in the workplace, from historical views to culturally imposed biases. I’m particularly interested in the idea that an individual’s level of confidence in their identity and abilities – or lack of confidence – can affect how they deal with gender barriers. Become Who I Am is comprised of interviews I recorded with members of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, who ranged from 13 to 17 years of age. Volunteers were asked to share what they were passionate about, when they felt most confident and/or insecure, to respond to a series of gender inequality statistics, and to brainstorm solutions to the disparity in numbers. Out of their responses, I constructed the libretto and prerecorded backing track.

Children of Conflict: "A Boy and a Makeshift Toy" (2015)
Commissioned by Michael Hall
viola, piano / 10'

Inspired by the work of American Pulitzer-nominated war photographer Chris Hondros, who captured images of children in wars around the world, the Children of Conflict series is a collection of sonic portraits based off of Hondros' intimately revealing photography with hopes to continue the storytelling and dialogue of his work prompts. "A Boy and a Makeshift Toy" is a portrait of a young boy playing in an abandoned train station, full of Albanian reugees, waiting to be taken to another camp. During an 11-week bombing campaign in 1999, Serbians displaced more than 800,000 Albanians out of Kosovo.
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"Everlastingness" from Gorky (2015)
Libretto by Royce Vavrek / Written for Hotel Elefant and Jeffrey Gavett
baritone voice, viola, piano / 10' 

An aria written for a new operatic fantasia on the live and death of abstract expressionist painter Arshile Gorky. Using specific lyrical images and extrapolating from quotations attributed to the artist, this song functions like a fever dream as Gorky's memories consume him. - Royce Vavrek, Librettist
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Silent Cranes (2015)
Commissioned by Kronos Quartet, projection art by Laurie Olinder, poetry by David Barsamian
amplified string quartet, audio playback, live processing / 30'

1. slave to your voice
2. you did not answer
3. [with blood-soaked feathers]
4. you flew away

In commemoration of the Armenian Genocide Centenary, Silent Cranes is inspired by the Armenian folk song Groung (Crane) in which the singer calls out to the migratory bird, begging for word from their homeland, only to have the crane respond with silence and fly away. Those who were lost during the genocide are cranes in their own way, unable to speak of the horrors that happened, and it is the responsibility of the living to give them a voice. The prerecorded backing track includes testimonies by genocide survivors, recordings from the genocide era of Armenian folk songs, and a poem from investigative journalist David Barsamian in response to the question "Why is it important to talk about the Armenian Genocide 100 years later?"

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Groung [Crane] (2014)
Commissioned by Kronos Quartet, arrangement
string quartet / 4'

Inspired by a recording from 1916 of Zabelle Panosian, a relatively unknown singer who had recently moved to Harlem, NY, of a version of the Armenian folk song "Groung (Crane)." In this song, the singer calls out to a crane, a common character in Armenian folklore and poetry, pleading for news from their country. Panosian's voice seems to carry the burden of her entire homeland with a beautiful and soulful interpretation of the melody, and in my own arrangement, the ensemble is asked to emulate her unique interpretation of the song. At the time Panosian recorded this piece in the States, the Armenians were going through genocide in Ottoman Turkey, and I find the timing of her recording to bring even more meaning to the music.
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Mary Kouyoumdjian · Groung (Perf. by Buffalo String Works)

Unearthed (2014)
Commissioned by Kathleen Supové
amplified piano, audio playback / 8'

An imagined dialogue between pianist and friend Kathleen Supové and her father, after she discovered her Jewish heritage. Her heritage had been concealed in the family until after her father's passing. ​

Children of Conflict: "Shards and Shrapnel" (2014)
Commissioned by Friction Quartet and Jeffrey Anderle
string quartet, clarinet/bass clarinet, audio playback / 8'

Inspired by the work of American Pulitzer-nominated war photographer Chris Hondros, who captured images of children in wars around the world, the Children of Conflict series is a collection of sonic portraits based off of Hondros' intimately revealing photography with hopes to continue the storytelling and dialogue of his work prompts. "Shards and Shrapnel" is a portrait of an eleven year old boy who peeks through a hole in a window left behind by the bullet of an Israeli sniper who killed his mother. It is my hope that this piece contributes an awareness of what individuals go through during outbreaks of violence and to emphasize a child's right to life, to a safe and nurturing environment, and to the opportunity to simply be a kid.

Bombs of Beirut (2014)
Commissioned by Kronos Quartet for Under 30 Project
amplified string quartet, audio playback, live processing / 22'30"

1. Before the War
2. The War
3. After the War

Lebanon, once the refuge where my grandparents and great-grandparents sought safety from the Armenian Genocide, became the dangerous home my parents and brother were forced to abandon during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990). We often read stories and see images in the news about violent events in the Middle East, but we very rarely get to hear the perspective of an individual who lived through them. Inspired by loved ones who grew up during the Lebanese Civil War, it is my hope that Bombs of Beirut provides a sonic picture of what day-to-day life is like in a turbulent Middle East –– not filtered through the news and media, but through the real words of real people. The prerecorded backing track includes interviews with family and friends who shared their various experiences living in a time of war; it also presents sound documentation of bombings and attacks on civilians tape-recorded on an apartment balcony between 1976-1978.​
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This Should Feel Like Home (2013)
Commission by Carnegie Hall for Hotel Elefant
flute, alto flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, percussion, piano, electric guitar, violin, viola, cello, contrabass, audio playback, live processing / 20'13

1. Eyes on Ararat
2. Soviet Shadows
3.   They Come to Drink and Pray
4.   The Ground Beneath
5.   Removed from Yerevan
6.   This Small Tribe
7.   Mer Hayrenik (Our Fatherland)

The idea of returning to my ancestral homeland had been engrained in me since childhood, so when I took my first trip to Armenia in 2012, my expectations were extraordinary. My homecoming experience was everything I was told it would be­ – emotional, strengthening, a feeling of immense connection to the beautiful land and the generously warm people. It was also sobering – harshly exposing the current economic state of Armenia’s citizens, the younger generation’s mass migration to escape extreme poverty and limited opportunity, political corruption, and the lingering remains of the Soviet influence on a nation that only recently gained independence. I gazed upon Mt. Ararat, an adopted symbol of the country, now behind Turkish borders, and felt the weight of the Armenian Genocide on this small country, now almost 100 years later.
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Tagh [Diary] of an Immigrant (2013)
Commissioned by Ensemble Oktuplus
two violins, viola, cello, contrabass / 4'

An imagined journal entry by a hope-filled someone hungrily pushing towards immigration who finds themselves in strange and bittersweet stillness once that immigration is achieved. The Armenian word "tagh" translates to "diary."
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Children of Conflict: "Samar's Song" (2013)
Commissioned by Nicholas Gleason
violin, two percussionist, audio playback / 5'11"

Part of the Children of Conflict series, "Samar's Song" is a portrait piece of a young Samar Hassan during the Iraq War. At the age of five, when her family drove back from taking her ill brother to the hospital, U.S. soldiers opened fire on their car, making her parents civilian casualties in her full sight. This is inspired by a photograph taken by the late Pulitzer-nominated photographer Chris Hondros of Hassan screaming and covered in her parents' blood.
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I Am a Fish [A One-Act Opera] (2012)
Commissioned by Experiments in Opera, libretto by Hannis Brown
countertenor, piano, electric guitar, violin, contrabass, audio playback / 9'30"

A one-act opera that explores the possibilities and confines of what we perceive as reality. John Herrington has an epiphany one afternoon, while verbalizing the sounds of words, that he may or not be what he has always taken himself to be. He realizes that words are square pegs that fit in round holes. Is he a man because he calls himself a man? Or is he actually a woman? Perhaps he is a fish. - Hannis Brown (librettist)
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Dzov Yerku Kooynov [Sea of Two Colors] (2011)
Commission by American Composers Forum & Jerome Fund for Hotel Elefant
flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano / 15'

1. Behind the Trees
2. House in Ruins

A portrait of Armenian composer Komitas Vardapet, who survived the Armenian Genocide. Upon release, Komitas spent 20 years and the remainder of his life in various psychiatric hospitals. A portrait of the deterioration of his mind. A portrait of the deterioration of his Armenian Culture.
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Sedna, Beneath the Sea [Requiem, Above Waters] (2011)
Commissioned by REDSHIFT Ensemble "Arctic Sounds"
clarinet, violin, cello, piano, audio playback / 5'

Sedna, daughter of a hunter, unsatisfied with the husband chosen for her, married her companion dog. Shamed, the hunter took his daughter out to sea. Shamed, the hunter drowned his daughter out at sea. Her body: became the creatures of the waters. Her heart: without love, filled with anger. The hunter weeps, the dog weeps, at the edge of the sea. She dwells in vengeance at the bottom of the sea. Samples wildlife recordings of Arctic wolves taken by Kathy Turco.
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MOERAE [The Fates] (2010)
Commissioned by The Audio & Music Project
violin, cello, piano / 15'

1. Clotho
2. Lachesis
3. Atropos

Based off of the Greek mythological trio of women: "the fates"
i. Clotho [the spinner, who spins the thread of life]
ii. Lachesis [the measurer, who chooses the lot of life]
iii. Atropos [the cutter, who cannot be turned, who at death with her shears cuts the thread of life"
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Dandelion [for Andie Springer] (2010)
Commissioned by Andie Springer, film by Nikolai Antonie
violin, audio playback, film / 9'

Just as the seeds of a dandelion, a symbol attached to childhood innocence and play, are carried to destinations unknown, Dandelion comments on how the standard repertoire of violinist Andie Tanning Springer's youth influences her contemporary musicality that is strongly focused on the experimental and avant-garde. The prepared electronics sample extracted audio from home videos of Springer's childhood recitals. The manipulated video is prepared by artist Nikolai Antonie.
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