Compositions

Choral and vocal works

On Dark Earth (2018)

Written for SATB choir

Text by: Sappho

Winner of the Uncommon Music Festival 2020 Composer Competition and Top Finalist for for Voices 21C 2019 Call for Scores

Commissioned by the William Ferris Chorale

Forthcoming publication by Dulcamara Press (2026)

Approximate duration: 4:00

Premiered and recorded live May 5, 2018
William Ferris Chorale (Chicago, IL)
Carling FitzSimmons, conductor

Moon Water Sun (2021)

Written for medium-low voice and piano

Text by: Emily Dickinson

Approximate duration: 7:45

Cycle of three songs:

  1. “Moon”

  2. “Water”

  3. “Sun”

Recorded live June 3, 2023
2023 SCI Online National: Concert I
Dawn Padula, mezzo-soprano; Jessica Hall, piano


Premiered February 25, 2023
Society of Composers, Inc. Region VIII conference (Tacoma, WA)
Dawn Padula, mezzo-soprano; Jessica Hall, piano

Women Who Kill (2018)

Written for soprano, violin, and double bass

Published by Dulcamara Press (2024)

Texts by: letters to and from Alice Mitchell and Freda Ward; Bonnie Parker, “The Street Girl”; “The Ballad of Maria Barberi”; Mary August Lee Demarest, “My Ain Countrie”; Allan Cunningham, “Home, Home, Home”; court testimony from Sarah Harvey

Commissioned by Bethany Battafarano

Cycle of five songs:

  1. “The Masculine”

  2. “The Muse/Mastermind”

  3. “The Damaged”

  4. “The Respectable”

  5. “The Witch”

Approximate duration: 22:00

Recorded June 28, 2018
Mairs Concert Hall (St. Paul, MN)
Bethany Battafarano, soprano; Elizabeth York, violin; Liz Draper, double bass

Chansons Innocentes (2015)

Written for soprano, clarinet, and piano

Text by E. E. Cummings

2017 winner of the International Alliance of Women in Music New Music Competition Patsy Lu Prize

Commissioned by Emma Rose Lynn

Approximate duration: 16:20

Cycle of five songs:

  1. “In Just-Spring”

  2. “Hist Whist”

  3. “Little Tree”

  4. “Why Did You Go”

  5. “Tumbling-Hair”

Recorded live November 10, 2016
Mairs Concert Hall (St. Paul, MN)
Emma Rose Lynn, soprano; David Soro, clarinet; Johanna Kvam, piano


Premiered November 9, 2016
Punk-Ass Classical VIII (Minneapolis, MN)
Emma Rose Lynn, soprano; David Soro, clarinet; Johanna Kvam, piano

Stronger (2021)

Written for variable instrumentation (lead sheet for voice and guitar)

Text by Victoria Malawey

Commissioned by MPLS (imPulse)

Approximate duration: 4:30

Premiered April 17, 2021
MPLS (imPulse) Songbook Project (online)
Arranged by Jamie Marshall
Jamie Marshall, vocals; Ryan Marshall, guitar; Richard Marshall, viola; Melinda Marshall, violin; Blake Weimerskirch, cajón

Every Land (2019)

Written for mezzo-soprano, guitar, and bass clarinet

Text by Ursula K. Le Guin

Commissioned by Bob Milnikel

Approximate duration: 3:30

Premiered February 29, 2020
Leap Day Concert (Gambier, OH)
Elizabeth Milnikel, soprano; John Kregor, guitar; Bob Milnikel, bass clarinet

The Patient Beating of the Animal Heart (2018)

Written for soprano, cello, and piano

Text by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Commissioned by the ARK Trio

Approximate duration: 5:00

Recorded live February 21, 2019
Mairs Concert Hall (St. Paul, MN)
Allison Charney, soprano; Kajsa William-Olsson, cello; Reiko Uchida, piano


Premiered December 3, 2018
PREformances with Allison Charney (New York, NY)
Allison Charney, soprano; Kajsa William-Olsson, cello; Craig Ketter, piano

Nightbreak (2009)

Written for SATB chamber choir

Text by Adrienne Rich

Approximate duration: 5:35

Studio recording
Kenyon College Chamber Singers
Benjamin Locke, conductor
The Star to Every Wandering Bark (2015)


Premiered March 2, 2010
Concert of New Music, Kenyon College (Gambier, OH)
Victoria Malawey, conductor

January (2009)

Written for soprano, mezzo-soprano, clarinet, and piano

Text by Helen Hunt Jackson

Approximate duration: 3:45

Premiered and recorded live January 31, 2010
A New Millennium of Music: Women in Song, Kenyon College (Gambier, OH)
Tamara Seckel, soprano; Jennifer Marcellana, mezzo soprano; Antoine Clark, clarinet; Dean Marcellana, piano

The Morning is Full (1999)

Written for bass-baritone and piano

Text by Pablo Neruda

Approximate duration: 5:00

Premiered February 25, 1999
Senior Composition Recital, Roosevelt University (Chicago, IL)
Richard Tennes, bass-baritone; Anatoliy Torchinskiy, piano

Suddenly You Light (1997)

Written for mezzo-soprano, flute, and violoncello

Text: five Japanese Haiku

Approximate duration: 3:00

Premiered March 3, 1997
Student Composition Recital, Roosevelt University (Chicago, IL)
Sarah Dickey, mezzo-soprano; Laura Koepele-Tenges, flute; Daliwonga Tshangela, cello

The Hollow Men (1995)

Written for SATB choir

Text by T. S. Eliot

Approximate duration: 6:00

Premiered December 1995
Roosevelt University Chorus Winter Concert, Roosevelt University (Chicago, IL)
Anne Heider, conductor

Two Songs (2025)

Written for soprano, mezzo-soprano, and piano

Text by Joel Allegretti

Two songs

  1. “Ghost Fox and Spirit Seal”

  2. “The Batfowler”

Approximate duration: 6:50

Want to premiere this piece? Contact us for a score

Rain into River (2022)

Written for SATB choir

Text by Michael Dylan Welch and Tanya McDonald

Approximate duration: 6:00

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Invitation to Love (2020)

Written for SATB choir; arrangement also for countertenor, countertenor, tenor, baritone, baritone, bass

Text by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Approximate duration: 3:35

Finalist for the 2022 Silver Melted into Sound Composition Competition

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The Gift to Sing (2020)

Written for SATB choir

Text by James Weldon Johnson

Approximate duration: 3:45

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El Beso (2018)

Written for SATB choir

Text by Angelina Weld Grimké

Approximate duration: 3:30

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The Heart Asks Pleasure (2015)

Written for SATB choir

Text by Emily Dickinson

Approximate duration: 4:30

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Five Madrigals (2000)

Written for SSATB chamber choir

Text by E. E. Cummings

In five movements

  1. “41 (Beautiful)”

  2.  “9 (now is a ship)”

  3.  “42 (nOthIng)”

  4.  “3 (seeker of truth)”

  5.  “XXVI (when god)”

Approximate duration: 12:00

Want to premiere this piece? Contact us for a score