Chamber

WIND QUINTET [2024]

Commissioned by Britten Pears Arts, and first performed by Lumas Winds, on the 29th March 2024, in the Britten Studio at Snape Maltings.

This piece takes inspiration from a Byzantine icon, located in St. Catherine's monastery, Mount Sinai: The Ladder of Divine Ascent.

It is not known who created the icon, but it represents St. John Climacus' book of the same name. The book was written in a cave, in solitude, and outlines 30 steps required to live a good life.

The numerical features of this icon inspired the structure and harmony of the quintet, as well as its broader narrative journey.

Ladder of Divine Ascent, Monastery of St. Catherine, Mount Sinai.jpeg

STRING QUARTET NO.2 'SHRINE' [2023]

Commissioned by The University of Oxford, and first workshopped by the Castalian Quartet, on the 15th February 2023, in the Holywell Music Room.

The first performance will be in 2025, by the Aestus Quartet.

This piece takes inspiration from a highly decorative Ottonian crucifix, located in the collection of Aachen Cathedral: the Cross of Lothair.

On one side are 102 gems and 35 pearls which are themselves engraved in microscopic detail. The other side has a beautifully detailed figure of Christ - it is therefore unclear which side is the front.

This question of orientation inspired the harmonic structure of the quartet, and the many detailed jewels contributed to the sequence of miniatures that guide the musical form.

SYNCHRONY [2022]

Commissioned by Ensemble CHROMA, and first performed in 2022, in the Holywell Music Room, Oxford.

For flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano.

This piece takes inspiration from Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman's analysis of the U.S. media: Manufacturing Consent.

In the book, they outline the five pillars of the Mass Media Machine, including advertisement, the media elite and identifying a common enemy.

The structure and content of the piece draws on Chomsky and Herman's ideas.

Below is a recording of movement 3: Moto Perpetuo.

MECHANICAL SYMPATHY ii [2022]

Commissioned by The University of Oxford, and first performed by Lise Vandersmissen, Georgia Russell and Anna Kondrashina, in the inaugural Philomel Creative Circle 'Discoveries' concert. This took place on the 12th October 2024, St. Cuthbert's Church, Earl's Court.

For flute, viola and harp.

The title of this piece refers to a term that describes the sympathy between an individual and a machine (e.g., a driver and their car). As such, the piece searches for that irrepressible emotional expression that lies at the heart of even the most structured music. Mechanical Sympathy ii is the second piece written with this idea in mind, but its musical material and instrumentation are unique to this work.

QUICKBEAM [2021]

Commissioned by The University of Oxford, and first performed by Lydia Bennett, Clara Graham, William Kidner and Bruce Parris, on the 1st December 2021, in the Holywell Music Room, Oxford.

For bassoon quartet (4th + contra).

This piece is inspired by a dream. In the dream the composer walked in a forest, and found himself in a clearing. Four trees around him began to move. They began breathing, uprooted themselves and walked, until they stood around him. They began speaking together. They spoke about the forest, saying how everything within it also breathes and moves. They told jokes, making each other laugh, and cry. Then, silently, they walked off into the night.

STRING QUARTET NO.1 'HIVE' [2020-2021]

Commissioned by the Castalian Quartet, and first performed on the 11th May 2022, in the Holywell Music Room.

This piece takes inspiration from the world of bees. The music draws inspiration from the hexagonal structure of honeycomb, but also from the nervous energy that can be observed in the industrious activity within a hive.

Interspersed between erratic movements, are sudden explosions of colour, characterised by music evocative of dance - like a rich new flower bursting into view.

MECHANICAL SYMPATHY [2020]

This piece was written as a covid lockdown project and under a strict one-week time limitation. It is a miniature, for two violins, lasting only 1 minute.

This piece has not yet received a performance.

PALAZZO - Mechanical Sympathy cover photo.png

PHOTISMS [2017]

Commissioned by Sound and Music, and first performed by the Instrumental Ensemble, led by David Horne. The premiere was at the Purcell School.

For flute, clarinet, violin, cello.

Photisms are the visions of colour and light associated with synaesthesia.

The piece is inspired by the sonorities that composers have found whilst claiming the influence of synaesthesia and its side-effects on their music.

The piece visits a broad spectrum of sounds, in an attempt to capture the varied ways in which light interacts with a viewer, whether through direct contact, or in conjunction with a medium - for example as a reflection off water.