String Quartet No. 1

Year composed: 2014-16

Duration: 23'

Knowing my school's curriculum requirement of composing for the JACK Quartet, I began writing a work that would last me my entire matriculation. The piece, a three movement string quartet, was written in increments out of order, starting with the mid section of the first movement, followed by the entire last movement, second movement, and finally the two outer sections of the first. At the time of its inception, I had a great infatuation with ternary form (A-B-A) which makes up the first and last movements. Additionally, the same structure can be seen if the entire work, first movement to last, is deconstructed: ABA-ABAB-ABA reducing to A-B-A.

In 2018, the third movement was performed in a collaboration consisting of myself, Invoke, and painter Peter Triantos. Peter completed a painting live to Invoke's performance at the Infinito Gallery in New York. The concert's proceeds were donated to the Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia to support the Edith Mitchell, MD Cancer Research Fund.