For Trumpet/Flugelhorn and Piano (2026), duration: 10’

When someone who is important in your life leaves you — a friend, a partner, a family member — their absence takes up a part of you. You find yourself trying to compensate for the part of yourself that is gone. The sensation is felt most when you are going about your day — working, commuting, with friends — and you see the person everywhere, and you look again only to find a stranger in the place of your imagination. In many ways then, we are all living with ghosts, and all we can do is readjust our life, so it feels more full, more complete. But the memories, and the reality of our irrevocable loss are still there.

This work was Commissioned by the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) as part of The ANAM Set 2026 and written for Lewis Grey, with its world premiere during ANAM’s 2026 recital season at the Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne. The ANAM Set 2026 is supported by the Lee Family Foundation. This work was first performed by Lewis Grey and Berta Brozgul on the 7th of September at the Rosina Auditorium.

Score Sample

For Trumpet and Piano (2024), duration: 12’

I. The Furthest City Light

II. Luminary Clock

This two-movement work ‘Acquaintances’ attempts to bridge the distance between notated and improvisatory musical styles. Programmatically, the piece is a meditation inspired by Robert Frost’s Acquainted with the Night, resulting in music that is transitory and dream-like, the second movement in particular reflecting the constancy of a ‘Luminary Clock’. The First Movement is recitative-like, in a rough Arch Form, with an almost symmetrical structure and broad gestures from the Trumpet and Flugelhorn. The central piano theme of the Second Movement is static, beneath free, improvisatory gestures. Although improvisatory, the movement does incorporate more formal compositional features, such as the middle section’s displacement and metric alterations of the theme. This piece was first performed by Yael Marks and Max Kielly on the 14th of June 2024, at Ormond College.

For Soprano Saxophone and Piano (2025), duration: 8-9’

This work was first conceived at the beginning of January. I knew I wanted the piece to be a continuation or a ‘reply’ to a jazz standard of some sort. I settled on ‘They Can’t Take That Away from Me’ (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin), a striking piece to me because unlike many love songs of the American Songbook, the song seems to focus of the small, everyday aspects of love. I also found a lyric that was especially poignant – ‘We may never, never meet again.’ I don’t usually like writing overly sentimental music, but in this case, I believe this song is truly about acceptance. About the transience and everyday aspect of love. This piece was written for Tom Lowe, to be premiered at the 2025 World Saxophone Congress in Harbin, China.

Premiered by Tom Lowe on the 7th of August 2025 at the 2025 World Saxophone Congress in Harbin, China. This piece was originally written for Saxophone Quintet (Soprano 1, Soprano 2, Alto, Tenor and Baritone), but this arrangement is for Solo Soprano Saxophone and Piano. This arrangement was premiered on the 26th of August 2025 on 3mbs, by Tom Lowe and Max Kielly.