June - Dec. 2025 (for four voices (SATB), piano, violoncello, and electronics)

Commissioned by Luna Composition Lab and River & Rail Theatre, to be world-premiered by River & Rail Theatre in March 2026.

Based on the Japanese folktale Tsuru no ongaeshi (つるの恩返し), I translated and adapted the story into a 15-minute theatre work. [Read below for a brief summary.] While engaging with this classic “don’t look” trope, I wanted to offer a more hopeful perspective. Society is already familiar with the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice—and, Hadestown is a masterpiece—so how could I offer a personal twist? I chose to reimagine the ending so that Tsuru’s departure is not a loss, but an invitation for Wakamono to finally look up and truly be alive—something he had not been able to do his entire life.

The folktale: A lonely man rescues a crane trapped in the snowy mountains. Soon after, a mysterious woman appears at his door, becomes his wife, and weaves extraordinary fabric that brings them sudden wealth—on the condition that he never watch her work. When he breaks this promise and discovers she is the crane he once saved, she must leave him forever, having repaid his kindness at great personal cost.

Painting by Satoko Kitagawa

Recording coming soon!

Oct. - Nov. 2025 (for bicycle and percussion)

Written for Sō Percussion in Steve Mackey’s Advanced Composition class, this piece is a sonic illustration of my college life at Princeton. The rhythmic motif introduced by the kick drum (“1, 2, 1-2-3”) is a common rhythm found in the Deaf community’s artistic practice called “percussion song,” this piece explores the many avenues through which that motif can be developed. In an ironic turn of events during the composing process , I fell off of my bicycle on the way to class one day and ended up needing 10 stitches in my knee—an inspiring moment, indeed.

Special thank you to Adam, Eric, and Jason for the awesome performance on Dec. 8th, 2025. (‼️ Don't turn up your volume too high at the beginning—your patience will be rewarded!)

Jan. 2025 (for countertenor, violin, and piano)

I was intrigued by the flowing and dreamy quality of James Russell Lowell’s poem “The Sirens” and decided to set an excerpt from it to music. The wave-like obstinato of the piano sets the scene of tranquil water as the violin chimes in with sometimes alluring and vocal, and other times bird-like chirping lines above it. And the countertenor joins in on the conversation, admiring the beauty of nature and lulling the listener in with imagery vivid to all five senses. This splendid beauty eventually meets a grotesque twist that reveals how deadly a charming mystique can be. I am so grateful and excited to write this piece for Karlo and Melody, who never fails to bring me joy and inspiration.

Written for and performed by Karlo Andrei Antalan 🎶 and Melody Choi 🎻 for their senior recitals on April 6th and 27th, 2025 at Taplin Auditorium in Princeton University.

Excerpt from The Sirens by James Russell Lowell

Here all is pleasant as a dream;
The wind scarce shaketh down the dew,
The green grass floweth like a stream
Into the ocean's blue;
Listen! Oh, listen!
Here is a gush of many streams,
A song of many birds,
And every wish and longing seems
Lulled to a numbered flow of words,
Listen! Oh, listen!
Here ever hum the golden bees
Underneath full-blossomed trees,
At once with glowing fruit and flowers crowned;—
So smooth the sand, the yellow sand,
That thy keel will not grate as it touches the land;
All around with a slumberous sound,
The singing waves slide up the strand,
And there, where the smooth, wet pebbles be
The waters gurgle longingly,
As if they fain would seek the shore,
To be at rest from the ceaseless roar,
To be at rest forevermore,—
Forevermore.
Thus, on Life's gloomy sea,
Heareth the marinere
Voices sweet, from far and near,
Ever singing in his ear,
"Here is rest and peace for thee!"

Sept. - Dec. 2024 (for narrator, clarinet, typewriter, violin, percussion, bass guitar, and piano)

In the fall of 2024, I took a class class called Opera without the Singing: Fables, Fairy Tales and Narrated Musical Theater, co-taught by Steve Mackey and guest professor and author, Adam Gidwitz. Directly inspired by Prof. Mackey’s recent piece, Memoir (2024), we were tasked with writing a chamber piece (for instruments played by members of the class) with a narrator. Continuing my long-standing love for Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “EPICAC,” I adapted the text and and knew I wanted to include a typewriter as an instrument to bring the computer character to life. It was truly a fun process illustrating the heartbreaking love story between a super computer and mankind.

June-July 2024 (for piano quintet)

Some Christmases ago, I asked Santa for Toothless the Dragon (from DreamWorks Animation’s “How to Train Your Dragon”). Unfortuantely, my serious request went unanswered. As years passed, my disappointment became indifference—amusement at myself, even.

The concept of growing up mostly elicits a positive connotation; a google search defines it as to “advance to maturity; develop into an adult,” which suggests the glory of competence and autonomy. However, I recently learned the importance of maintaining our child-like-selves. As children, we indulge ourselves in fantastical worlds and pour time and heart into our limitless creativity. While we come to cement a clearer distinction between real existence and made-up wonder as we grow older, we must not let our understanding of reality become our belief of what is possible. Because the voices of our childhood may open doors we did not know existed.

Growing up does not mean that we must step out of our wonderland.

Written for the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival: recorded by Jusun Kim, Hannah Chaewon-Kim, Misha Amory, Nagyeom Jang, and Gloria Chien, with Grammy-Award-winning producer Alan Bise on Aug. 21, 2024.

Painting by Satoko Kitagawa

May 2024 (for piano trio)

To hold onto a perfect life is a mistake, as the act of holding on is an active rejection of growth, and perfection itself is an illusion. Through this piece, I sought to construct a state of ordinary peace, only to shatter it with heightened hysteria. This representation of degradation is not a nihilistic statement, but rather an encouragement to take risks in life and to live each moment to its fullest.

Commissioned by Composers Unveiled.
Premiered by ChamberQueer in collaboration with Luna Lab on Nov. 3rd, 2025, @National Sawdust.

illustrated by Yuri Lee

May 2024 (for solo piano)

In hopes that this piece can be a shoulder for you to cry or rest on, if you need.

Commissioned by Composers Unveiled’s Joshua Lee.

March 2024 (for SATB choir)

For the lovely Princeton University Glee Club seniors I'll miss dearly

In August 2023, I arrived on Princeton campus with high hopes, aspirations, and a flexible but calculated plan for my undergraduate years. What I wasn’t prepared for was the wonderful family of kind and inspiring peers in the Glee Club who welcomed me with open arms. I have never been upset at people for their age, but at Princeton, I have whined Why are you a senior?? Don’t leave meee... on a regular basis.

I decided that instead of brooding over the passage of time, which no one can control, my time would be better spent cherishing every rehearsal and conversations with my new friends and wishing them the best for the future.

“My wishes are ready to accompany you on your journey, and I have confidence in you.” Taken from one of the letters poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote to an aspiring writer, these words are my gift and token of gratitude for the Glee Club seniors. I hope that they will carry these words with them to whatever destination awaits after graduation.

Premiered at the Princeton University Glee Club Reunion 2024 event, sung by alumni members of the Glee Club on May 24th, 2024.

Jan. - March 2024 (for 2 violins and piano)

The original spark came during the tap-dancing-eggs sequence from the musical “Something Rotten!”, the spark of which was an image of two soft-boiled eggs trying to dance a tango together.

Soon after, I received news that an important musical figure in my life, a phenomenal bandoneon player who thought me the art of tango music, has recently been fighting cancer. Since then, I wrote this piece with him in mind. A piece with moments of uncertainty and lack of direction that always returns to the tango sound. Tango music will always be with you, in any shape.

Commissioned and premiered by Princeton University’s OPUS, performed with Allison Jiang (‘26) and Miriam Waldvogel (‘26) on May 2nd, 2024.

Illustrated by Satoko Kitagawa

April 2024 (for sinfonietta)

The third movement of The Scarlet Symphony, sinfonietta version
for the Albany Symphony’s “Orchestrating for the 21st Century” workshop (June 4-9, 2024)

A wild child’s erratic ballet that spirals out of control.

"O brook! O foolish and tiresome little brook!” cried Pearl, after listening awhile to its talk. “Why art thou so sad? Pluck up a spirit, and do not be all the time sighing and murmuring!” But the brook, in the course of its little lifetime among the forest-trees, had gone through so solemn an experience that it could not help talking about it, and seemed to have nothing else to say. Pearl resembled the brook, inasmuch as the current of her life gushed from a well-spring as mysterious, and had flowed through scenes shadowed as heavily with gloom. But, unlike the little stream, she danced and sparkled, and prattled airily along her course."

- Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlet Letter)

Recording coming soon!