Premiered November 23, 2025 at Oberlin Conservatory — Oberlin, OH
Performer: George Rogers, saxophone
unison (2025) for alto saxophone and fixed stereo playback
unison began with the goal of combining my practices as a saxophonist, improviser, composer, songwriter, and producer. Since a young age, I’ve sampled and chopped tracks as a way of further engaging with my favorite music—from Ravel’s string quartet to Barry White’s greatest hits, and from Bill Evans’ solo piano to Vanessa Carlton’s early-2000s throwbacks. unison, however, was the first time I sampled my own music. I started by loading Charger (2023; music, lyrics, and piano by myself; vocals by Mariah Leontopoulou-Cochran) into a Digital Audio Workstation and seeing how many different beats I could create by splicing and rearranging the single track. Once I had a variety of harmonically and rhythmically diverse loops, I began ordering them alongside each other. I went to my saxophone and started playing along with this newly "Frankensteined" track, taking careful note of what worked and what didn’t—and what was missing. I layered recorded saxophone and digitally produced mallet percussion to blur the line between acoustic instruments and electronic sound.
Several aspects made this composition process uniquely rewarding and motivated me to compose more electroacoustic works. First, this piece entailed the longest composing timeline for any of my works. I began in June 2025 and premiered it in November 2025, over five months later. Collaboration was crucial, too, as I sampled recordings of my peers and co-mixed the final track with a close friend.
Premiered October 8, 2025 at Oberlin Conservatory —Oberlin, OH
Performers: Jonah Ordower, flute; Miguel Arroyo, oboe; Isabel Corson, horn; Jared Sta. Ana, bass clarinet; Mia Tran, bassoon
in August, every time (2025) for wind quintet
in August, every time was originally written for the George Rogers Band in December 2024, which consists of saxophone, electric guitar, piano, upright bass, and drum set. Over the following months, I began thinking about adapting the piece for chamber ensemble instrumentation. I experimented with several types of ensembles before deciding on the wind quintet, shifting the color of the work while retaining its eclectic character. The music draws on multiple styles: the spacious lyricism of Americana, the rhythmic and harmonic density of modern jazz, and the fragmented pacing of electronic music, among others. Adapting my original music from lead-sheet format into a chamber ensemble proved to be a very satisfying experience. It allowed me to focus more on arrangemental aspects—such as timbre and counterpoint—and less on the generation of entirely new material.
At its formal center is a five-bar theme set in a palindromic group of mixed meters. Contrasting sections explore more open rhythmic fields, drawing from traditional swing feel and Afro-Cuban bembe. The piece moves between dense, highly detailed textures and moments of extreme sparseness, producing a sequence of distinct but connected atmospheres.
Performers: George Rogers, saxophone; Isaiah Harwood, piano; Graeham Guerin, bass; Max Simas, drums
find ways to see it (2025)
find ways to see it was the first piece I wrote after a hiatus from jazz-focused compositions and lead sheets. It was largely written in the swelteringly hot practice-room sheds at New Music On The Point. As a result, it incorporates the arrangemental finesse and unpredictability of the experimental music I was surrounded by there, while also returning to the melodic and harmonic conventions I was exploring on the saxophone and piano recreationally, with inspiration ranging from Thelonious Monk to the math-rock band American Football. As with other lead sheets I have created for my own bands, I’m interested in recontextualizing find ways to see it for a larger ensemble with varied instrumentation, such as a string quartet and rhythm section.