Hello, Princeton folks! Here is my portfolio. I have provided excerpting suggestions for every piece so that your total listening time will be around 15 minutes. If you have a bit more time, I have shorter ca. 30” excerpts for a little taste of the food music pieces that I talked about in my statement. You can find links to my Statement of Purpose, Personal Essay, and CV/Résumé at the bottom of the page.

 

Shadow Puppets (2023)

for countertenor and mixed ensemble (2 fl.[2+picc.], perc., e. guitar, vln., vla., vcl., db.)
ca. 14’30”

  • If excerpting, listen to the fast section featuring onomatopoeic writing, a groovy guitar part, and some janky percussion! This lasts from 04:53-10:34 in the recording and b.68-243 in the score (numbered pg. 7-25, PDF pg. 11-29).

 

Absalom (2022)

for unaccompanied SATB choir and SAT trio
ca. 6’00”

  • I am extremely happy with how this entire piece turned out, especially the pacing, harmonic shifts, and emotional arc. Please listen to this in its entirety if you can!

  • If you absolutely must excerpt this piece, begin at 01:30 and listen to the end. This corresponds to b.17 to the end (numbered pg. 5-16, PDF pg. 7-18).

 

Eulogy for a Fallen Tree (2023)

concerto for 2 bassoons and contrabassoon
ca. 15’30”

  • If excerpting, listen to 01:45-05:45 corresponding to b.21-100 in the score (numbered pg. 4-16, PDF pg. 6-18). This traverses I: Grow and II: Bloom, and I am really proud of the orchestration and the pacing here.

  • If you have a little bit more time, listen to the entirety of II: Bloom (04:53-07:50 in the recording corresponding to b.67-182 [numbered pg. 11-31, PDF pg. 13-33]) or Prologue: Mourn, the very opening of the piece (00:00-01:04 in the recording corresponding to b.1-13 [numbered pg. 1-2, PDF pg. 3-4]).

 

Extra: Food Music!

糖水系列 - Childhood Sweet (2022)

for solo piano
ca. 13’00”

  • The first movement, 黑白 - Black and White, refers to a traditional dessert where chunky, bouncy black herbal jelly is laid on top of a luxurious bed of smooth tofu pudding. The texture of these ingredients bears a surprising similarity to the black and white keys of the piano!

  • The second movement, 榴蓮忘返 - Durianland!, takes its name from one of my favorite dessert places in Hong Kong——a small shop in Tsim Sha Tsui that specializes in durian and durian-flavored desserts. Despite my undying love for it, the fruit's notorious reputation for both repelling and attracting people in equal measure is not lost on me.

    • The movement is built on Cantonese tones for the phrase 「好臭！」(F# E ), which means “It stinks!” in English. I make use of the speech-to-song illusion here, but in reverse——well-versed Cantonese speakers will be able to decipher the very rude, unsung lyrics to the tune.

  • The last movement, 芝麻糊，綠豆沙 - Grandpa's Lullaby, quotes an original Cantonese lullaby written by my late grandfather:

    「芝麻糊，綠豆沙，五仙一碗杏仁茶。五仙一碗唔好講價，你買唔買，唔買就罷！」

    "Seasame soup, green bean soup, five cents for a bowl of almond soup. It's five cents a bowl, don't bargain with me. Are you buying? Go away if you're not!"

 
 

Cracked (2021)

for string quartet
ca. 10’30”

  • My first foray into food music, Cracked is a string quartet about eggs in terms of both the ways we cook them and the potential life force that it contains. The first four movements——soft-boil, fry, steam, and scramble——are vignettes of my favorite ways of preparing eggs, and I focused on bringing the respective cooking methods, textures, and tastes of the movements' namesakes to life. The last movement, hatch, aims to capture the wondrous process in which a chick grows inside an egg, and reflects on the respect we should have for all the food that we, so often, take for granted.

 

Statement of Purpose, Personal Essay, and CV/Résumé

Below are links to my written documents!

Statement of Purpose

Personal Essay

CV/Résumé