Featured Works
On this page are a few, selected compositions to introduce new listeners to Connor's music. Please reference the Works page for more of Connor's music, or the Contact page to inquire about this music (or any other works)!
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Inside Voice for Pierrot Ensemble, 9' 00"
Inside Voice is inspired by the notion of having to stay silent and repress your feelings and/or your personality to satisfy someone else. When someone [younger] screams, they’re often reminded to “use [their] inside voice.” This work follows a poem by the composer through cycling frustration, bursting out into an “outside voice.” The chaos is cut off dramatically by the singer, who twists the text to suggest that this entire presentation has been a farce, as often happens when someone else “doesn’t like what they hear.” The piece concludes with a grounded sense of self and a self-chosen inside voice. |
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Presence for Piano Trio; 8' 00"
There are a lot of mysteries to life, including one's purpose or what remains beyond our realm of understanding. Highlighting a poem by the composer, Presence juggles the ideas of existing, being present, and embodying an aura which affects others. In the end, everything will melt, disappear, and sink, but also have existed. So, where are you? |
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Tenparu (テンパる) for Solo Saxophone; 3' 45"
Tenparu (テンパる) is a Japanese expression that conveys being at the edge of one's limits. This work uses various gestures that come in and out of focus to capture the sense of one slowly approaching their breaking point. Ultimately, that threshold is crossed in a final squeal of emotion. |
Imminent Horizon for Full Orchestra; 7' 00"
(NOTE: this is NOT a fully rehearsed performance. This is the product of a short reading session.)
The boundaries of the universe and reality are unknowable. Inspired by a simplified model of black holes, Imminent Horizon imagines the journey toward the event horizon of a black hole, where all light is trapped to never return. This work journeys dramatically and inevitably toward the singularity, finally returning to an inverted restatement of the very opening. This ambiguous ending reflects the idea of the information paradox: is something that goes into a black hole permanently lost? Is there a new universe, or does the original material radiate slowly, transformed and diminished? The answers lie beyond that imminent horizon, if one could survive it.
(NOTE: this is NOT a fully rehearsed performance. This is the product of a short reading session.)
The boundaries of the universe and reality are unknowable. Inspired by a simplified model of black holes, Imminent Horizon imagines the journey toward the event horizon of a black hole, where all light is trapped to never return. This work journeys dramatically and inevitably toward the singularity, finally returning to an inverted restatement of the very opening. This ambiguous ending reflects the idea of the information paradox: is something that goes into a black hole permanently lost? Is there a new universe, or does the original material radiate slowly, transformed and diminished? The answers lie beyond that imminent horizon, if one could survive it.
What Was Left Behind for Solo English Horn; 7' 15"
In a time of chaos, one can only imagine a future where everything has been lost. This work for solo English horn is conceptually set in this future, where memories and emotions growl viscerally through lamenting melodies with fragmented multiphonic sounds. It in this soundscape where we imagine what was left behind from the past, should we ever have to live in this dark and broken world.
In a time of chaos, one can only imagine a future where everything has been lost. This work for solo English horn is conceptually set in this future, where memories and emotions growl viscerally through lamenting melodies with fragmented multiphonic sounds. It in this soundscape where we imagine what was left behind from the past, should we ever have to live in this dark and broken world.