I’m honored to have been selected for the 2026 New Music on the Bayou Summer Festival in Monroe, Louisiana. Although I won’t be able to attend in person from Boston this year, I submitted my music to the festival in the hope of sharing my work with new performers and audiences.

The festival brings together composers and musicians from across the country for several days of rehearsals, performances, and artistic exchange in a wide variety of spaces throughout Monroe and Ruston. I look forward to hearing the musicians’ interpretations of the work and seeing how the piece takes on new life through performance.

If you are in the Louisiana area, I encourage you to attend or follow the festival and support the performers and organizers making these events possible.

Composer, pianist, and educator Matthew King featured one of my Children’s Pieces as part of his ongoing New Piano Miniature series on The Music Professor YouTube channel.

The Music Professor, created by Matthew King and Ian Coulter, explores music through performance, discussion, analysis, and cultural context, bringing contemporary and classical music to a wide audience with both depth and accessibility. Matthew King is Professor of Composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and it was an honor to have one of my small piano works included in the series.

This video is a long-form conversation/interview with guitarist and composer Carolina Barenbaum about composing for classical guitar. The discussion focuses on how composers think about the instrument, extended techniques, notation, and the creative process behind new guitar music.

Main Topics Covered

1. The Guitar as a Unique Compositional Instrument
2. Composing from the Instrument
3. Extended Techniques and New Sounds
4. Notation Challenges
5. Collaboration Between Composer and Performer
6. Advice for Composers Writing for Guitar

In November 2025, I was unexpectedly tagged on Instagram in a performance of one of my children’s violin pieces. Violist Francisco Esparza created a new arrangement of my Children’s Piece No. 1 for viola quartet, which was performed in Sala Silvestre Revueltas in Tlalpan, Mexico City on November 4, 2025.

The performance featured:

Viola 1 — Francisco Esparza
Viola 2 — Montserrat Plácido
Viola 3 — Saúl Ríos
Viola 4 — Jonathan Coronel

What made this especially meaningful to me was that the original work was written for beginner violin students, and hearing it transformed into a viola quartet in a completely new context was both unexpected and deeply touching. I was honored that Francisco chose to arrange and perform the piece alongside the Bartók Viola Concerto with the Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil Ollin Yoliztli in Mexico City.

I’ve also included the full concert video featuring the Bartók Viola Concerto and the surrounding program to share the broader musical context of the performance and highlight the wonderful work of the performers and ensemble. I’m deeply grateful to have my music included alongside such a program and encourage listeners to experience the full concert.

My sincere thanks to Francisco and the ensemble for sharing and bringing new life to my music.

A filmed performance of Euthalia for clarinet and piano, recorded in Belmont, Massachusetts on May 11, 2015.

Performed by:

Emil Lancea — clarinet
Ayako Yoda — piano

Sound engineering by Sam Kopper and John Deponzio
Mixed by Eric Kilburn of Wellspring Sound

This video captures one of the early performances of Euthalia, documenting the piece through both sound and performance on film. My thanks to the performers and recording team for their care, musicianship, and collaboration in bringing the work to life.