Original Compositions
This is a collection of all of the non-film specific pieces of music that I have written to date. The music here ranges from percussion duo, to string quartet, to wind trio. All pieces are available for download if interested. If you have any questions or interest in playing any of the pieces below, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Ohkwari'kó:wa
This is a story told in 5 movements of a real Haudenosaunee Legend. Translated to "Monster Bear", this work for solo percussion and electronics teaches a part of a long and beautiful history. For the Haudenosaunee people, lessons were shared through words and stories. Legends carried through the generations. Language and history taught from one life to another. Ratewenniio takes his knowledge of this story and shares it through his voice; performing this legend for all to hear, experience, and learn from.
A March in Layers
This is a piece written for a 13 person percussion ensemble. It is a piece inspired by the move “A Nightmare Before Christmas”. This is my first percussion piece, and one of my first pieces composed ever. It’s a light-hearted, one might say goofy march that has a lot of drive and energy to it. Featuring mallets, mixed multi-percussion, and timpani, this is a piece that a large ensemble can have fun with. It was debuted in 2019 at Ithaca College under my baton during a percussion ensemble concert.
The Wonderer
This wind duo plus piano is the story of a person traveling through life, enjoying all of the spoils that comes their way. Suddenly, the music takes a turn when this person makes a mistake. They go down a bad path and get lost. They lose friends along the way. On the other side, they attempt to return to a sense of normalcy but cannot escape the gloom of their mistakes. It’s a duo for flute and oboe, and features a strong sense of communication, representing the thoughts and emotions of our character. This was debuted in 2019 for a freshmen solo recital I performed.
Downward Circles
This is a piece for marimba duo I wrote for my teacher, Gordon Stout. Gordon actually performed this with me on my freshmen solo percussion recital. It is a piece very much inspired by his unique writing style. After performing a handful of his works, including a piece he dedicated to me, I had a large grasp and appreciation for his style. This piece is inspired specifically by “Skylark Orange Circles” and features a lot of similarities in the opening theme, such as mixed meter, sequencing, staggered melodic entrances, and more.
Marching Colours
This is a piece for sax quartet. Written in 2019, this was a challenge piece for myself. I set the goal to write a piece within a 2 hour time frame, and I laid the framework for this piece in that window. Inspired by a sax quartet I befriended in college, this piece features a chaotic intro featuring mixed meter and polyphonic texture. This cacophony of sound resolves into this huge, almost superhero sound that has a ton of energy and drive. A colourful experience for any players.
Echoes
This is a piece for percussion trio. Written in 2020, it was inspired by “Pléïades - Peaux by Iannis Xenakis”. I performed this movement of this incredible work in my sophomore year of college, and was so amazed by the melodic multi-percussion writing. I came up with the concept of the piece while in the rehearsal process for Peaux. It features a melody that travels in a circle around the audience. Ideally, each player would be in a different part of the recital hall playing their part with the audience seated in the middle. This would give the listener a feeling of being surrounded by the sound. This is a piece full of patterns and energy that brings a whole new world of feeling while listening to it performed live. This was debuted by me in a virtual setting. I played all 3 parts and recorded it in surround sound to give some sort of idea of what it would sound like live.
