Aspen

Chamber Orchestra

I've recently become intrigued by a rather remarkable quality of aspen trees. Aspens typically grow not as individual trees, but in clone colonies. These colonies spread by sending out root suckers. Each of the trees in a colony is interconnected by a single, intricate root system; even the largest grove of aspens is made up not of many trees, but of one single, living organism. This piece seeks to capture, in a sense, this unique quality of aspen trees. The piece doesn't follow any specific program; rather, I began with a few simple ideas that seemed reminiscent of the nature of aspen trees, and allowed those ideas to spread and develop. This piece was commissioned by the Brigham Young University Chamber Orchestra, directed by Kory Katseanes, through the Barlow Student Composition Award, and was premiered on March 31, 2016, in the De Jong Concert Hall in Provo, UT. Aspen was also selected for the 2016 ACO/Earshot Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra Readings, and was read and recorded in a public concert by ICO on September 23, 2016.