Barber on a Walk
July 2023 (for solo violin)This is a gift for Gil Shaham,written with loving memories of performing the Barber Violin Concerto with Mr. Shaham in the National Youth Orchestra of the U.S.A. in celebration of NYO-USA’s 10th anniversary.This is a sonic imagination of what Barber on a walk, in the midst of envisioning his Violin Concerto, would be like, with references to the memorable melodic…
Lullaby for Marimba
July 2022 (for solo marimba)A short piece written after a wonderful meting with a percussionist at the National Youth Orchestra of the USA 2022, Glenn Choe! I will never forget the way Glenn came up to me saying that he loves composers and collaborating with them. He made my day when he sent me this video today, keeping his promise that he would play this little piece for me someday. Thank you,…
Truly the Sun
April 2023 (for solo trombone)“In the origin, women were truly the sun, genuine human beings. Now, women are the moon. Living by the light of others and shining with a pale, sickly light, like the face of someone with an illness. We must now take back our sun that has been hidden away.”- Hiratsuka Raichò„Commissioned and premiered by Grace Ng at her Juilliard Pre-College Senior Recital on May…
Self Portrait
April 2021 (for solo violin)This piece is the self portrait of my brain—precisely, the 5% of it that is conscious, and the thoughts I am willing to share with the listener. It depicts the feeling of confinement that I often experience as a struggling trilingual. From the fast approaching fog that clouds my memory and steals away words and phrases of Korean and Japanese was born the notion of a…
Flutter
May 2020 (for solo violin)Flutter is based on Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, a dark fantasy novel about secret societies in Yale. This piece illustrates a particular moment when the protagonist first encounters magic. She is introduced to a magical moth species that can drink or suck up ink from any surface by beating their wings, and she comes to a shocking revelation that the world is not what…
Chess (solo ver.)
Aug. 2019 (for solo piano)Chess was later arranged into a solo piano version, where it zooms out of the same chess match, not being too specific about every move made but focusing on the tension and suspense on the battlefield.Winner of NYSSMA’s Call for Composers & Songwriters in 2020, and performed by Annbritt duChateau at NYSSMA’s Winter Conference Young Composers Showcase Livestream.