seven dreams about my body (2024) for microtonal sextet (17')
 I had strange and vivid dreams at the beginning of the pandemic. Like many other people, I dreamt often about crowds, masks, and hospitals - and I also had odd recurring dreams about my body. In each of these seven dream-interludes, my body is not my body but something else. To capture the surreal, foggy atmosphere of these dreams, I extend the sound of the ensemble with a microtonally tuned keyboard.
seven dreams about my body will eventually serve as the interludes between the sung and spoken sections of my doctoral dissertation, a concert-length cycle of vocal-instrumental pieces which explores the intersection of queer longing and psychosomatic illness. This cycle will draw from my recollections of a childhood diagnosis with “conversion disorder,” and will focus on the body and the things it unknowingly stores: memory, trauma, ache, desire.
 
i. dream in which i float on a black sea
ii. dream in which my body is a flock of birds
iii. wasps’ – nest – dream
iv. dream in which my body is a constellation
v. dream in which my body is clockwork
vi. teeth – falling – out – dream
vii. dream in which i cannot walk
after performance of seven dreams about my body ​by Aspen Contemporary Ensemble
​selected performances
         Jan. 2025 — Blackbox Ensemble, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
         Aug. 2024 — Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Aspen Music Festival, Aspen, CO
         Jan. 2024 — Blackbox Ensemble, Blackbox Festival, ShapeShifter Lab, New York, NY
​         Jan. 2024 — Duo Diorama and friends, Tea Time Concert Series, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL