BGSU composition students will present their new works, performed by fellow music students. This event is free and open to the public.

LIVESTREAM LINK

PROGRAM

 phytosynthesis (2025) - Dean Kyle (2002)
Shannon Lotti - flute, plant, electronics

Program note: phytosynthesis began as a botanical duo exploring what happens when a musician shares a performative musical space with a plant. As it grew, the plant raised an important point about honoring the needs and voices of fellow living beings. A human, with care and collaborative spirit, might engage with them to create something greater than either individual could alone. There is music in all manner of things; a plant is no exception.
 

Ghost in my Brain (2025) -  Noah Simon (1998)
Noah Simon - Guitar and Voice

Program Note: My brain is filled with ghosts, and here's one of them. Enjoy!
"Ghost in my brain
Ghost in my brain
Caught in the rain
Looming below
Shadows aglow
Moon under snow
Where did I go?
Ghost in my brain
Ghost in my brain
Caught in the rain"
 

an horn he bar…(a horn he bares…) (2025) – Eleanor Margraf (2006)
Brayden Adamisin – Alphorn

Program Note: This piece, for me, was an investigation and experimentation into such a unique instrument in a context often not heard by the average listener. While keeping with tradition, the piece bends it and melds tradition with new music.
 

Shreik! (2024) – Sarah Hertenstein (2005)
Ryan Moore – Bb Clarinet

Program Note: Shriek! is a clarinet solo that aims to explore the rhythmic capabilities of the clarinet. Its title derives from the idea that after each rhythmic phrase the clarinet ends abruptly jumping out of the page when it re-enters once again. Yet there is a break from the rhythmic bounciness within a calm melodic feature, only to once again lead right back to the familiar energetic tune.
 

Ascension (2025) – Christian Glascock (2000)
Flute quartet: Ashley Busch, Kiersten Swihart, Eliseo Hernandez, Gloria Pan

Program Note:  Ascension is a piece that explores the contrast between angels and fallen angels, focusing on the redemptive journey from darkness to light. The music begins with sinister, turbulent motifs reflecting the turmoil of fallen angels, and gradually transforms into soaring, radiant harmonies that symbolize redemption and transcendence.
As I composed Ascension, I connected this transformation not only to mythological themes, but also to deeply human experiences—rising after failure, seeking forgiveness, and finding grace through grief. The music mirrors that emotional arc: from despair to hope, from brokenness to beauty.
 

-INTERMISSION-
 

eye ⟂ outside ⟂ eye ⟟ 𒅆𒇽𒅆 (2025) – Ömer Kurtuluş (1990)
Ömer Kurtuluş — voice & interactive electronics

Program Note: A live dialogue with AI. Pre-composed sounds of double bass and voice are segmented into a corpus that the system reanimates in performance, triggered by the composer’s live reading of the Code of Hammurabi (c. 1750 BCE). Rather than reconstructing the past, the work lets it resonate in the present—renewed at each performance.
 

Four Instruments (2025) – Lukas James Bass (2003)
Saxophone Quartet
 

Tears (2025) – Dominic Gomez (2006)

Program Note: A piece written with the text of Walt Whitman. My interpretation of “Tears” is he is writing about the many implications and reasons to cry. That it can be a bad thing, a good thing, or something neither bad nor good.
"TEARS! tears! tears!
In the night, in solitude, tears,
On the white shore dripping, dripping, suck'd in by the sand,
Tears, not a star shining, all dark and desolate,
Moist tears from the eyes of a muffled head;
O who is that ghost? that form in the dark, with tears?
What shapeless lump is that, bent, crouch'd there on the sand?
Streaming tears, sobbing tears, throes, choked with wild cries;
O storm, embodied, rising, careering with swift steps along the
beach!
O wild and dismal night storm, with wind—O belching and des-
perate!
O shade so sedate and decorous by day, with calm countenance
and regulated pace,
But away at night as you fly, none looking—O then the unloosen'd
ocean,
Of tears! tears! tears!
(1866)
Walt Whitman
 

Uncle Gumbus 2 (2025) – Orson Abram
Sandra Barrick, Edward Tilton Jr. – Voicemails
Orson Abram – Electric Guitar and Objects

Program Note: A piece about the voicemails my uncle left me after he found out about Gumbusness.