Composition Updates/Announcements

“Resonant Gratitude” - fl/ob/cl/bsn/voices/4perc/strings and open-air environments

Remember that dissertation I said I was writing? “Resonant Gratitude” is the result! The music encourages listening, awareness, and reflection all while engaging with one’s natural surroundings. “Resonant Gratitude” uses breath as a temporal marker which allows flexibility in the total duration of the piece, but it seems to average around 45 minutes. Participants mentioned tuning into the sounds of nature much more as a result of performing the music, and I am honored to have been able to facilitate such listening. Stay tuned for a full video of the premiere soon!

If you are interested in hosting a performance of “Resonant Gratitude” in your community, please let me know!

“Cyclone” - solo alto saxophone

(commissioned by a consortium led by Claire Salli)

For those of you in Colorado, you may be familiar with Lakeside Amusement Park and their Cyclone roller coaster. When Claire asked me to write this piece that incorporated some extended techniques (slap tongue, extended range of altissimo register) for an intermediate saxophone player, I immediately thought of the ups and downs in pitch range that would best suit these techniques, which led to this solo! Claire presented “Cyclone” at the 2024 North American Saxophone Alliance and the US Navy Band International Saxophone Symposium. Claire also featured “Cyclone” as part of her DMA dissertation research at Texas Tech University, along with two new works by Jennifer Jolley and Hong-Da Chin.

Program Notes: Colorado’s Lakeside Amusement Park is home to one of the oldest wooden roller coasters that is still in service today. Cyclone was originally built in 1940 by Edward A. Vettel and was a favorite of mine as a kid. Each time we visited Lakeside, my brother and I would attempt to ride Cyclone as many times as we could. Weeknight visits in the summer were particularly ideal because we could hop off the ride, run down the exit ramp, run right back up the entrance ramp, and hop on for another round! The whimsical, childlike thrill of riding a wooden roller coaster like Cyclone will never get old for me. I hope you enjoy the ride, too!

Learn more about “Cyclone” and purchase the sheet music here

“Turning Point” - solo vibraphone, voice, and fixed electronics

(commissioned by Braedon Bomgardner)

Braedon and I first met in 2017 while Projeto Arcomusical was on tour at Kansas State University; Braedon was one of the percussionists who played in the concerto version of “Roda” by Elliot Cole. We stayed in touch over the years, and as part of his last Masters recital at Indiana University, we collaborated on a commission for solo vibraphone with electronics. Braedon also was open to incorporating his voice, which was a much-needed and humanizing element to this otherwise mechanical work. We are planning an official music video recording soon, but for now, please enjoy the premiere performance by Braedon from his recital at IU on April 6, 2024.

Program Notes: It turns out that when attempting to balance an inhumane amount of work while also trying to write music that is centered on joy and optimistically looking toward the future, the ironic tension between reality and optimism subconsciously finds its way into the music, whether one wants it to or not. Even more ironic was recognizing after the music was complete that the optimism was actually a longing for groundedness and peace, a break from the day-to-day machine. 

I may not ever really be able to “turn my brain off” from work, but perhaps slowing down the machine every once in a while can be enough.

Learn more about “Turning Point” and purchase the sheet music here.

Education Announcements

Teaching is such a meaningful part of my work. Whether it is through private lessons, workshops, residencies, or formal classes, I love being able to collaborate on the learning journey with others.

Washburn University and Von Hansen hosted me for a workshop in April, where they were working on “Lyric Dusk” for percussion sextet. We were able to catch the solar eclipse right after our rehearsal— lucky us! I also visited via Zoom with students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Bakersfield College this spring. If there are ever opportunities to collaborate with you and your students, please reach out! I now also have openings in my private studio and am always eager to work with new students.

In my own education news, I wrapped up three years of teaching aural skills at the University of Michigan in May and will certainly miss being in the classroom in the fall. But I am also honored to have been awarded a Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship for the 2024-25 academic year, which means one more (final, for real this time…) year of school before becoming DRAlexis! I am grateful for the support from the university and from my dissertation advisor, Evan Chambers, and I look forward to making the most of this final year!

Reflections on Refugia Festival-Ann Arbor (Nichols Arboretum, April 20-21, 2024)

I know I am a bit biased as the Founder, CEO, and Artistic Director of Refugia Festival, but I think that our inaugural event was a great success! Refugia Festival-Ann Arbor (RF-A2) hosted over 200 people for eight performances, five workshops, two sound installations, and one on-site service activity. The festival's events shed light on how we can continue to preserve our ecosystem through increased knowledge and personal engagement with the space. Most performances and workshops included an interactive element for attendees, ranging from making music with flowerpots to going on a sound scavenger hunt to dancing. The variety of experiences and available activities made the event friendly to attendees of all ages, abilities, and musical/environmental backgrounds.

But perhaps most strikingly, the premiere of my dissertation as the last event at RF-A2 was the strongest indicator of a change of perspective for attendees. With all the other performances and workshops at RF-A2, attendees applauded when there was a clear ending. I intentionally wrote the end of my music to feel less like a strict ending a more of a return to the soundscapes of the natural world. As a result, attendees did not applaud until minutes after the performance "ended" and I demonstrated a closing by speaking at the stage microphone. People did not want to break their listening to the natural soundscapes to show appreciation for the human-made music; instead, they continued to listen deeply and with gratitude for the sounds provided to us by our southeast Michigan ecosystem. The weekend's collection of interdisciplinary events resulted in a final moment of community and kinship with the natural world and with each other.

Refugia Festival is looking for new locations and sponsorships for our 2025 season and beyond. If you would like to learn more about a festival that centers sound, education, and community, we should chat!

Shout-Out Corner - Gavin Ryan

I have made some incredible friends over the years, and I want to feature some of them with each quarterly letter. Cheers, friends, for all that you do!

If there was ever a person who could tackle anything that happens in life with impeccable quality every time, it would be Gavin Ryan. Gavin and I started at University of Michigan in the same year, but he was in the Performing Arts Technology program and planning to audition for the DMA Percussion program in the spring of his first year at UMich. Because he got into the DMA program, we have had a continued stint of time together in school. We started to get to know each other through percussion ensemble, and even in three short years, I consider Gavin to be one of my dearest friends. He is as innovative and exceptional of a performer/recording engineer/sound artist/composer/dog owner/fixer-of-all-things as he is a kind and ultra-generous human. He is the recording engineer for my forthcoming album (yes, it’s still happening, but with a few time delays, so more on that in the next newsletter!), so we have gotten to know each other quite well in our many hours of recording, editing, and mixing, and I am very grateful for that. Gavin will be moving to New York at the end of this summer (the East Coast should be so lucky!), but he will still be visiting UMich regularly this year to continue working with the gamelan ensemble and to wrap up his DMA in percussion. Be sure to check out his work on his website and social channels— it will always be a treat!

Thank you, Gavin, for being such a wonderful, supportive friend and colleague!

Thanks for reading, and always feel free to reach out and say hello!