Conducted by Guillaume Lemay-Yates

Performed by the QC Symphony 7/11/24

I Was Born Of This Earth is set for large orchestra. Rockets whizzing upwards, astrobiology, alien nervous systems, volcanoes erupting on long dead planets, black holes in competition with an ever expanding universe. These are the things this piece is about. My current works are very story orientated and so I tried to capture only the feelings instead.

Kerren’s Amazing Adventure is an extremely sweet piece about a little Koala named Kerren going on an undersea adventure only to realise that home is the best place to be. Conductor Stefanie Smith approached me in 2021 to write this work and finally, after some time, the score is complete and is set to be performed. The piece features full orchestra plus narration a la Peter and the Wolf. I believe it to be fun for all ages and especially fun for me.

• no. 1 – Apostle Town
• no. 2 – Love Town
• no. 3 – In God’s Woods

Life of Towns by Anne Carson is a series of poems that I read during my two years absent from university. My life was very bad in every way, financial, social, emotional, physical, you name it. But these powerful and clever poems helped me start writing ‘classical’ music again and then I used these pieces to be readmitted to continue my study. Set for a small orchestra bordering on ensemble, these pieces are quaint, short, and pretty.

• Not Available for Distribution, yet…

Illuminating Paradise is a love letter to a period of change and progress and not too dissimilar to our current times- the wondrous few years surrounding the turn of the 20th-Century. After being approached to compose a new work by the fabulous people at QSO, I wanted to write a piece that showcased my love of 20th-century composers and other antiquities. Before pen could be put to paper and cursor to screen, I had to find the main musical idea that could be twisted and distorted by my evil little composer hands which ended up being a snaking waltz melody that ascended to the heavens.

I have always loved Arabic music from when I was little. Having grown up in Qatar, I feel a connection to the music. The Dying of the Magic Circle is a piece where I continue to develop my understandings of the microtonal scales and beautiful melodic movement. This piece is enchanting and it is stirring as it incorporates fog-like texture and syncopated dances.

Each melodic motif is representative of a person in my life and each section is a moment in time with the themes playing off each other as I recalled my memories. This piece is extremely intense and it is equally angry but anger turns to sadness and sadness turns to exhaustion. Erotic Gun Violence is as shocking as it is real.

Performed by Con Symphony

Conducted by Stefanie Smith

For full Orchestra, In the Offing is a tone poem about maritime mythology. This piece follows the stories of Davy Jones’ Locker and asks the question: Where do the Dead Sailors Go?

The Ship is inspired by a sculpture of the same title by Eduard Bersudsky. Bersudsky lived through the Soviet Union and created many sculptures about it. He incorporates ill-fitting scrap metal and various junk, thus creating a jarring mechanical effect. Florence emulates this mechanical effect in her composition with the strings are the clockwork parts providing the groove, and woodwinds with brass soar above the waves. Two bells chime as the boat rocks back and forth. The Ship creates vivid imagery in the eyes of the listener of the open sea and the Russian oppression.

Performed by QSO in 2019.

It was thanks to this sweet fanfare that I got accepted by the QCGU back in 2020 and so I’m forever grateful to this early piece of mine.

The Beginnings of a Journey is a fanfare written for the Artology Fanfare Competition of which I was very luckily awarded a place with the other composers. I wanted to make a dark and evil piece to showcase my ‘technical prowess’ as a snarky teenager, but when I wrote this fun tune I was shocked at how light and fun it was. It went against everything a teenager stands for! However, the piece is wonderfully written, beautifully played, and overall I left the opportunity with a thousand and one new ideas for my pieces.

Performed with Artology in 2019-2020

SUBMACHINE is a piece about a pneumatic contraption deep underground, dreaming and reminiscing in the darkness.

Performed by QCGU Wind Band

Conducted by Zachary Miezio

SOUND OF THE SUMMER (NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL WIND BAND) is my attempt to create a chart topping summer hit for Ibiza.

Performed by Young Con Wind Band

Conducted by Stephanie Smith

• Mvt I: Great Desert Coucil
• Mvt II: 26 Languages – 16 Interpreters
• Mvt III: 3 Years Long

Duncan Gardiner Memorial Guitar Ensemble Composition Competition: People’s Choice Award

Performance on the 8th of December 2024 by the Classical Guitar Society of WA

Pilbara Strike, 1946 for Guitar Ensemble. With the recent 2023 Voice to Parliament vote having an overwhelming ‘No’ result, I thought it was crucial to understand the history of Aboriginal rights in Australia. This piece coincides with the May Day sit-down strike 78 years ago in 1946 when Aboriginal people throughout the region refused to work until they got better wages. Following this first strike, the climactic walkout happened in June of 1946 and continued for three long years, during which the police threatened and then arrested 43 men. It wasn’t until multiple Unions teamed up to aid the strikers that the Department of Native Affairs granted concessions in 1949. Let this recent history guide us to create a fairer country for everyone.

Velomolocipede for Guitar Ensemble. An imagining of an old time bicycle but with so many wheels – just so many wheels.

Performed by the Riverside Guitar Ensemble in 2024

Quartet for the Prince is a three-movement piece exploring the aural soundscape of the Middle East through the dance rhythms. For a portable quartet, the work takes the listener on a nomadic journey through the dunes from campfires on the bedrock to the wandering markets and finally the quasi-march dance. This piece divulges in not only the rhythmic practices of Arabic music but also the tuning as the musicians must change their tunings to accommodate for the notes outside of the western tradition. Quartet for the Prince tells a story about community through various ensemble styles and collaboration at its core.

• Sophie Schafer – Flute
• Julia Hill – Violin
• Oliver Misso – U-Bass + Percussion
• Florence Lingane – ʻukulele, Percussion

Inspired by the paintings of French symbolist, Odilon Redon, Déesse De La Nature is a flurry of colour and passion. The piece combines the grotesque with the beautiful in a dance painting a story of the Goddess of Nature.

Shimmering ever delicately but, as snakes display the prettiest patterns, violent turmoil brews beneath the elegant form.

 For 14 Wind Players

Rattenkönig or Rat King is a natural phenomenon where rats get their tails stick together via entanglement or oils. For many decades it was believed to be a hoax but now it’s accepted to be a genuine biological problem. This clarinet quartet paints an image of the rats entangled amongst themselves, pulling and writhing in all different directions, unable to escape.

Vessels directed by Daniel Hayter

Hunter written by Avicia Dutton