hca

harvard composers association

exhibition : 2016

who we are
The mission of the Harvard Composers Association is to promote
the presence of 20th- and 21st-century music on Harvards campus
through concerts of contemporary repertoire, original student compositions, and collaborative projects with other media, art forms,
and organizations. HCA has served as a community and platform
for aspiring undergraduate composers through the programming of
concerts and master classes each semester. These events serve both
to enrich Harvards musical offerings as well as to create valuable
opportunities for composers to publicly exhibit a typically private
aspect of their musical life. This album seeks to expand on these
goals by reaching a larger audience and significantly expanding the
number of undergraduate composers featured. We hope that you
are inspired, bewildered, captivated, and shocked by the myriad of
musical offerings found among these twelve composers.

SCOTT ROBERTS
English, 2019

about the piece:

Archetype was written in 2014, in honor of
Horace Silver and Carl Jung.

bio:
Scott Roberts is a pianist and composer from
San Diego.

-Brandon + Ari

Archetype| 3

SAM WU

Music + East Asian Studies, 2017

about the piece:
Gestures from the Jin Dynasty Court - Nanyin is a Chinese musical tradition with roots in Jin Dynasty (265 - 420 A.D.) court
music. Some nanyin gestures exhibit temporal fluidity, others flirt
with chromatic intervals. Together, they are like stars in the night sky; I gather
them to create constellations. In doing so, I hope to construct a compendium for
nanyin; one that is personal, reflective, and at times, narrative.

bio:
Sam Wu (b. 1995) is from Shanghai, China. He has studied composition under
Tan Dun, Chaya Czernowin, Libby Larsen, and Josh Levine (masterclasses under
John Adams and George Benjamin).
Recipient of Harvards Hugh F. MacColl Composition Prize, Artist Development
Fellowship, Bach Society Orchestra Prize, Oklahoma City Universitys Project21
Prize, Interlochen Fine Arts Award, ASCAP awards, among others, Sams music
has been performed in the United States, France, Portugal, Australia, Japan, and
China.

KAPENA

Music + Social Anthropology, 2016

about the piece:
This recording of Ducks is an excerpt from a
solo improvisation I performed in Los Angeles.
Having worked with Max/MSP as an improvisatory tool, I devised a patch such that I would be able
to easily improvise both on the Saxophone and electronics.
The patch creates multiple voices and textures that both overlap
and serve as a counterpoint to the acoustic saxophone sounds. The
name Ducks comes from recurring motifs throughout the piece
meant to imitate the honking, quacking, and ruffling noises of
ducks and other types of waterfowl.

His collaborators include the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, Beijing National Center for the Performing Arts, Shanghai International Arts Festival, Asia Society, Sydney University, Princeton Pianists Ensemble, Radcliffe Choral Society, pipa virtuoso Wu Man, among others.

4 | Gestures from the Jin Dynasty Court

Ducks | 5

ALEXANDER ZALOUM

CHUNG HON MICHAEL CHENG

Mathematics + Music, 2016

Electrical Engineering, 2019

about the piece:

about the piece:

Vibrant Horizons, for piano solo, was composed in 2015 and is dedicated to his
beloved homeland, Hong Kong. The three movements each capture a characteristic aspect of Hong Kong, together chronicling its storied past, embodying its
celebrated present, and prophesizing a bright, promising future.

bio:
Chung Hon Michael Cheng was born in 1997 in Hong Kong, where he began
studying piano at age four and composing on his own at age six. He studied composition with Dr. Ann Witherspoon in Houston, Texas, from 2011 to 2015 and
currently studies music theory with Professor Richard Beaudoin.

bio:

The piece on this album, Never Forgotten, is a trio

for piano, violin and cello that was first performed
by the Juventas ensemble in 2014. It is about the struggle to reclaim ourselves and rebuild the world after tragedy strikes, while retaining the memory of those lost as we
move forward.

Alexander Zaloum is a senior from Arlington, VA studying Mathematics and Music. He first began composing for a creative arts competition in seventh grade, and
composing has been one of his most meaningful pastimes ever since.

Cheng was awarded the Licentiate of Trinity College London (LTCL) in Music
Composition with Distinction in 2013 and attained a perfect score on the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) Grade 8 Theory Examination
in 2011. He was also declared the national first-place winner of the Music Teachers
National Association (MTNA) Composition Competition in 2012 and the national second-place winner of the same competition in 2011 and 2014.
6 | Vibrant Horizons

Never Forgotten | 7

AMIR BITRAN
Physics, 2016

BRANDON LINCOLN SNYDER

Music, 2018

about the piece:

Viewing Lens, Magnetic Shards, Organisms is a reflection on perspectives. In our
universal perspective, with galaxies and cosmos, we see a set of materials governed
rigorously physical laws. In our most intimate perspective, we see the atom and
its sub-components still governed by these same laws. Yet, somewhere in between
those two lenses we also see humanity, subjectivity, and imagination. To some, this
is a departure, a gray-area, and escape from the laws that govern us. To others, it
is one and the same.

bio:
Composer, music director, and keyboardist Brandon Lincoln Snyder studies music composition with Chaya Czernowin and Felipe Lara, improvisation with Vijay Iyer, and conducting with Federico Cortese. He has received accolades from
the MATA Festival, Downbeat Magazine, and the Boston University Tanglewood
Institute. In addition to concert and jazz music, Brandon has scored numerous
student films, as well as produced music for HarvardX online. He currently runs
his own pop music student ensemble, as well as the Harvard Composers
Association.
8 | Viewing Lens, Magnetic Shards, Organisms

about the piece:

The Galilee Oak juxtaposes an original, folk- inspired melody with a set of lighter textures based
on string harmonics. The melody presents itself at
the opening, and is orchestrated to imitate aspects of
folk singing and instrumentation, including drone bass,
improvisatory adornments and expressive vibrato and glissandi. The subsequent
harmonics echo these folk-like glissandi, but within a more fleeting, ethereal
soundscape. This section provides a meditation on the preceding material. The
work proceeds to develop the contrast between these two moods, painting a picture of folk melody that lives within a surreal, dream-like environment.

bio:
Amir Bitrans multi-lingual and multi-cultural background is perhaps the most
important driving force behind his artistic impulse. His American, Jewish and
Latin-American heritages have shaped his worldview and defined his musical
idiom. Bitran studied composition at Harvard College with Chaya Czernowin,
Richard Beaudoin, Osnat Netzer, and Daniel Henderson. His music has been performed by the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, the Callithumpian Consort,
and by the Grammy-award winning Cuarteto Latinoamericano in various cities
within Mexico and the U.S.
The Galilee Oak | 9

PHILLIP GOLUB
English, 2016

about the piece:

Run Fun is a piece for improvising ensemble. A set of
rhythms and pitches cycle through a predetermined
order. The musicians essentially have three choices at any
given moment: play the notes on the page, play something else, or
dont play. The band aims to build on an ever-shifting foundation.

bio:
Phillip Golub, 23 years old, grew up in Los Angeles in a musical
family. He began studying piano at the age of five, playing jazz at the
age of twelve, and composing as a teenager. Jazz and concert music
continue to split (and join) his time. Phillips music has been performed by commissioned and performed on festivals across the country. He studies English at Harvard and jazz performance at the New
England Conservatory. In recent years, Phillip has studied with Vijay
Iyer, Chaya Czernowin, Bruce Brubaker, Jason Moran, Kati Agocs,
and Ran Blake.

10 | Run Fun

LIAM MCGILL

Social Anthropology +
Visual and Environmental Studies, 2018
about the piece:
i will not act before making it so
prong i. make
prong ii. it so
prong iii. so long (vritablement)
I will not act before understanding. Context is everything. -Alfredo Jaar
an unsafe space, non-expression

bio:
liam mcgill is a student, composer, ethnographer, artist, working through and
between different media

i will not act before making it so | 11

JEONGMIN LEE

Human Developmental
and Regenerative Biology, 2019

SEAN KALANIMOKU RODAN

Music, 2017

about the piece:

ember is a piece about the behavior of fire its ignition, glow, volatility, and
eventual decay.

bio:
Sean Rodan is a budding composer, conductor, vocalist, and flautist from Honolulu, Hawaii. As a composer he has participated in the Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium in Eugene, Oregon and the European American Musical Alliance Composition program in Paris, France. His works have been performed by
the Parker Quartet and the Callithumpian Consort. As a music director, he has led
theater productions such as the Harvard Gilbert and Sullivan Players production
of Ruddigore, and Harvard Early Music Societys Alexanders Feast, and currently
serves as assistant conductor of the Harvard Mozart Society Orchestra. Composition mentors include Chaya Czernowin, Richard Beaudoin, David Conte, and Josh
Levine; conducting mentors include Federico Cortese and Andrew G. Clark. Sean
is a junior living in Adams House, concentrating in music.

12 | ember

about the piece:

Jeongmin says, Dancing in the Snow was
made over this past winter break. When I
came back to New Mexico, a rare snow storm hit
the town the day after Christmas which most likely influenced the song I made. The program I worked
with had an abundance of electronic voices in their library to the
point that I could not resist making an electronic song myself.

bio:
Jeongmin says, I am a freshman undergraduate whose hometown is in southern
New Mexico. Music always had a special place in my heart as my most memorable
childhood memories include performing in the elementary school musical. I used
to over exaggerate every move and scream, and although everyone loved it, even
my teacher, my parents usually felt embarrassed for me. In retrospect, I was always
described enthusiastic even up to my high school years, and in music, I was able
to express my enthusiasm. I started to compose in my sophomore year of high
school for a school project. When I discovered free music composition programs,
I became hooked on making my own music.

Dancing in the Snow | 13

acknowledgements
Producer: Brandon Lincoln Snyder
HCA Co-presidents: Ari Korotkin, Michael Cheng, Vaibhav Mohanty, and Brandon Lincoln Snyder
Designers: Linda Song and Irene Limb

BEN WETHERFIELD
Mathematics, 2017
bio: ben wetherfield
works in a range of media including video projection, improvised performance, interactive
electronic music and mathematical proofs
has featured on projects with Vijay Iyer, Mauricio Pauly, Anna Meredith and Reiko Yamada
has recently been refashioning broken guitars
both to play and to display

Very special thanks to Karen Rynne and the Music Department for
funding the printing of the album, as well as Lesley Bannatyne and
Mary MacKinnon for promotion.
Thank you to Evan McColm (tpt), Kyle Myers (alto sax), Nathan
Collins (tenor sax), Justin Grinnell (b), Julien Cantelm (ds), and Ian
Tordella (recording) (Roberts), the Callithumpian Consort (Wu,
Snyder, Rodan), Aristo Sham (Cheng), Juventas (Zaloum), and Tree
Palmedo (tpt), Max Lesser (tenor sax), Alex Graff (gtr), Simon Wilson (b), and Russell Holzman (ds) (Golub) for performing the composers work.

will soon be making things at the Studio for

Electro-Instrumental Music (STEIM) in Amsterdam

14 | Mittens

15

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