For Four Trumpets (2026), duration: 4’

Many of my works are written in one way or another about memory. This work was written for the VCA 2026 dance collaboration ‘We are All Animals’, taking place in the former mounted police stables, south of the Birrarung (Yarra River). The work remembers the human and non-human bodies that existed prior, and furthermore, the large immigrant population that lived and worked on these lands. This was part of the opening of the work, performed in the Wetlands outside the stable, a place now marked by colonial power. It evocates the experience of non-human bodies – horses in particular – prior to the mass gentrification of the city. The work is contemplative and still, disrupted by echoes of colonial power.

Score Sample

For String Quartet (2026), duration: 7’

This work is based off several photos by Peter Hujar, part of the ‘Orgasmic Man’ Collection (1969). Hujar was a contemporary of photographers and artists such as David Wojnarowicz and Diane Arbus – all of which in one way or another captured the experiences of queer people in 1960s New York. The photos have always haunted me. They capture several queer men at the point of ejaculation – one of the most inherently private and intimate human experiences. The photos make the viewer feel a sense of voyeuristic discomfort, because you can’t quite tell whether the subjects of the photos are in pleasure or in pain. All that you aware of is that you are trespassing on an intimate, vulnerable, and shameful state. This feeling of visceral discomfort was a starting point for my work, as I am fascinated with the idea of desire and how it’s projected in all my works. There’s also another level to the work. There is something intensely moving and poignant about Hujar’s work for me. He was cataloguing a collection of neglected experiences in the queer community that would have otherwise gone unnoticed and unremembered. There is a sense in all his photographs that the subject is trying to speak to the viewer through time, saying, ‘I was here, and I always will be.’ Now, we often associate the experience of being queer with joy, but there is the inevitable converse of that. The photography of Hujar is ultimately – for me – a reminder that we are allowed to feel joy and express love because of the protests and silent experiences of past generations. I come back to these photos often, and all the men in the photos still seem to be saying the same thing – ‘I was here.’ This work was written for the Mivos Quartet as part of the 2026 Vienna Contemporary Composer’s Festival.

Score Sample

For Saxophone Quintet (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. This work was premiered by Tom Lowe on the 7th of August 2025 at the 2025 World Saxophone Congress in Harbin, China.

For Clarinet, Cello and Piano (2025), duration: 7’

‘Aubade of a Broken Sky’ was written as a reaction to a similarly titled poem by Ocean Vuong – ‘Aubade of a Burning City’. I was struck not only by his evocation of the Vietnam War, but by the visceral, raw quality of his writing. He often places pleasure and pain side by side, blurring the lines between the two in an unbearable way. Similarly, the photography of Peter Hujar – specifically the queer-centered collection ‘Orgasmic Man’ – blurs a similar line. You are unsure whether the subjects of the work are in pleasure or in pain. Yet you know in both cases that through being a witness to the art, you’re trespassing on something intimate. My own work reacted to this – to how closely these innermost feelings sit to one another. This work was first performed on the 10th of October by Ensemble Liaison at the Athenaeum Club, winning the 2025 Athenaeum Club Composition Competition.