For more information on any of the works below, to obtain perusal PDFs or to purchase sheet music, please contact Yaniv.
…the light that breathes… (2024)
for orchestra
Inspired by concepts in Daniel Mason’s incredible novel, North Woods, this piece explores the nature of absorption, relay, and eventual bloom. A cotyledon is an embryonic leaf in some plants that fuels its initial growth and then disappears into the plant. It gets energy from sunlight and turns that energy into a breathing organism, which also allows all other life on Earth to breathe, before being absorbed into the plant. My music starts with textures and hidden melodies –as if searching for the path forward– then grows as information and energy is encoded and transferred from one generation (or cell) to the next. As the work continues, we hear the peeling back of layers as each new growth subsumes the previous iteration. The light that breathes ends in a glorious celebration of energy and life.
ca. 12’
3222 4231 tmp+3 str + as many extra bells as possible around the audience
note: 2 hns and 2 tpts are antiphonal
premiere in January 2025 in Salina Kansas
American Patriots (2023)
IN PROGRESS
for three singers and chamber ensemble
“In our increasingly polarized society, American Patriots asks audience to listen across difference".”
American Patriots is a theatrical song-cycle that captures the essence, variety, and intensity of contemporary American voices from four vastly different perspectives: African-American, Native American, New American, and white Working-Class American. Featuring newly commissioned songs set to interview texts of over 40 individuals, American Patriots takes an unflinching look at the lived reality of American ideals today.
ca. 75’
More info here
Tour dates beginning in November 2023.
New American Songs (2023)
Commissioned by Samantha Rose Williams for the American Patriots project.
For mezzo soprano and piano
A song cycle about the New American experience with texts that are taken from verbatim contemporary interviews with four people across the nation who identify as New Americans.
Aging Out, 3’45”
It Could Have Been Me, 7’30”
Polarity, 4’30”
Born Here, 5’00”
ca. 22’ total
Symphony in Scenes, “Skychange” (2022)
for orchestra
“the sky changes when they are [wed]” – William Shakespeare: As You Like It, Act IV, sc. 1
The Path(s) we take through the garden, and ones we chose that brought us to this time and place where we now forge a new path together through the infinite future. A single Lotus blossom reminds us of the ones who are not with us who too changed the world both ours and many others and left too soon; we play music when words are not enough. Life is made of Moment(s) strung together to make a life so beautiful; we are still unsure if the moment has passed when it becomes clear the sky has changed. We move together under the moon, we wonder is that the same moon that shone last night together, we breathe together, lose ourselves in Rhapsody.
ca. 30”
2(1.2/picc).2(1.2/eh)2(1/eb.2/bcl)2 4331 tmp+5 hp str
(movements also available for performance separate from Symphony)
Premiered by the Salina Symphony on 6 November 2022 in Salina, Kansas.
Fanfare (2022)
for strings (quintet or section) and optional percussion; or for brass quintet and optional percussion
Fanfare (2022) was arranged and adapted from Overture of Gratitude, Fanfare for Brass and Percussion (2015), which was commissioned by Andrey Boreyko and Artis—Naples in honor of Sharon and Timothy Ubben in celebration of their endowment of the position of Music Director.
ca. 2’30”
Premiered by the Grand Rapids Classical Orchestra (cond. Yaniv Segal) on 15 May 2022 at DeVos Performance Hall in Grand Rapids, MI.
Price, Adoration (2022)
for clarinet and string quartet
I made this arrangement for my dear friend Ellen Breakfield-Glick and CityMusic Cleveland based on Florence Price’s wonderful work for organ solo.
Bruch, Violin Concerto No. 1: I. Vorspiel, concert ending (2022)
for violin solo and orchestra
Many young soloists win competitions to perform the first movement of Bruch’s first violin concerto with orchestra, but in the original work there is no pause between the first and second movements thus requiring some kind of concert ending to be furnished. Having perused several existing solutions and completions to this dilemma and been unsatisfied, I have written a short concert ending that enables the violin to conclude the movement with elegance, utilizes Bruch’s own thematic material, and honors the first movement’s affect as a vorspiel (or prelude).
Premiered by Robin Meyer and the Grand Rapids Youth Symphony on 15 May 2022 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Mussorgsky, Paintings at an Exhibition (2021)
for chamber orchestra or full orchestra
Many orchestrations for Mussorgsky’s incredible piano work exist, including the most well-known Ravel version. I decided to tackle this work for 2 main reasons: (1) to create a chamber version that could be performed alongside other small works and be more accessible on a budget (and a pandemic) and (2) to seek to be more faithful to the original piano version than other composers were. Mussorgsky’s original work is gritty and rough; frequent voicing or chord choices seem wrong. Ravel’s orchestration turns the work into a glorious French masterpiece, but at times I think it doesn’t stay true to the more abrasive original. My version may sound hollow in comparison, as I sought to more closely mimic the original intent of the work while using the wonderful palette of a symphony orchestra to make the work as colorful as possible.
ca. 37’
chamber: 1111 2111 tmp+1 hp str – Premiered by the Ashland Symphony orchestra on 30 October 2023 in Ashland, Ohio.
full: 2222 4231 tmp+2 hp str – Premiered by the Grand Rapids Youth Symphony on 31 October 2021 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The Harmony Games (2018, rev. 2021)
for narrator and chamber or full orchestra
After fighting for as long as anyone could remember, four families come together through the power of music.
This is a new Educational/Family concert for chamber orchestra and narrator that introduces young concertgoers to the families and instruments that comprise the orchestra, while demonstrating numerous ways in which math and music are related. It is interactive, inspirational, and fun for all. Audiences, parents, musicians, and educators alike have been glowing in their reviews.
ca. 42-60’ (42’ + optional interactive Q+A with more material and demonstrations 5’-15’ where kids get to conduct etc.)
chamber: 1111 2111 tmp+1 hp str – Premiered by the Naples Philharmonic (cond. Radu Paponiu, narr. Carolann Sanita) on 25 September 2018 in Naples, Florida.
full: 2222 4231 tmp+2 hp str – Premiered by the Reno Philharmonic (cond. Laura Jackson, narr. Jason Altieri) on 2 October 2021 in Reno, Nevada.
A Fidelio Symphony (2018)
My arrangement of Beethoven’s music from Fidelio into a symphony. There are three parts: Introduktion, Aktion, Aptheose. The music follows the arc of the opera and incorporates the vocal lines into the texture of the orchestra. It is dramatic, lyric and showcases the beauty and power of Beethoven’s opera in the symphonic hall.
ca. 32’
2222 4230 tmp str
Premiered (recording) by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (cond. Yaniv Segal) on 17 May 2017 in Cardiff, Wales.
Sonata for Orchestra, Op. 30 No. 2b (2017)
Together with composer and educator Garrett Schumann, we have re-orchestrated Beethoven’s magnificent Sonata for Violin and Piano Op. 30 No. 2 in c minor in the style of Beethoven. Thus we have created a new c minor symphony that parallels, precedes, and foreshadows his most dramatic Symphony No. 5.
ca. 28’
2222 2200 tmp str
Premiered by the Naples Philharmonic (cond. Yaniv Segal) on 16 March 2017 in Bonita Springs, Florida.
Concerto for Cello (2014)
Written for my friend Erich-Schoen Rene, this work highlights the dramatic and technical abilities of the cello. The first movement, Capriccio is based on an earlier Caprice I wrote for cello solo, and is pointillistic and pits the cello against the orchestra. The second movement, Undulation, features contemplative, wandering and meandering music, contrasting greatly with the fragmented first movement. The last movement, Electricity, features the cello as if drifting around a big city, where each turn down a new street yields new surprises.
ca. 24’
2222 2110 tmp+1 str
Premiered by the Chelsea Symphony (Erich Schoen-Rene, cello and Reuben Blundell, cond.) on 31 January 2015 in New York City.
The Rite of Spring REDUX (2013)
I reduced, updated, and rearranged Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring for a modern orchestra. In order to maintain some of his unique colors, I added a few percussion instruments, electric guitar, and saxophone. Otherwise it is a reduction in the strictest sense, so that it can be performed with smaller chamber orchestras while maintaining the harmony and sound of the original Rite.
ca. 35’
2(1/p,2/p)2(1.2/eh)3(1/eb.2.bcl)sax(ssax/asx)2 4231 tmp+2 egtr,bgtr str (min. 66442)
Premiered by Yaniv Segal and the Chelsea Symphony on 25 October 2013, in New York City.
Phoenix Fantasy (2013)
My master’s thesis written as a grad student at the University of Michigan.
The phoenix is a legendary bird that is inspiring and awesome in its might. The creature dies by bursting into flame, only to rise again from its ashes, even more majestic than before.
ca. 9’
3(1.2.p)23(1.2.bcl)2 4331 tmp+3 str
Premiered by Yaniv Segal and the University of Michigan’s University Symphony Orchestra on 16 February 2013 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Caprice for Solo Cello (2012)
Commissioned by Richard Aaron for his cello studios at the University of Michigan and the Juilliard Schools. This short work for solo cello explores a few melodic cells in an exciting and technically demanding fashion.
ca. 4.5’
solo cello
Premiered by Nathaniel Pierce on 14 December 2012 at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Whimsical Rag (2012)
Written as an encore/flashy piece, this work brings down the house! Audiences laugh and cheer, and it is fun for the performers as well. It can be performed by violin solo, but is better together with piano.
ca. 4.5’
violin and piano
Most recently performed by Glenn Basham and Jodie de Salvo on 30 and 31 January 2017 in Naples, Florida.
String Quartet No. 1 (2011)
Written while a student at Michigan in a post-romantic idiom. The two movements are of roughly equal length; the first is wistful, and the second is punchy with a middle section that quotes a Hungarian folk dance.
I. Slow, remembering
II. Fast, folk dance
ca. 10’
Wedding Music: “in memory of” (2010)
I wrote several pieces of music for my own wedding: Fanfare, Bridal Party, in memory of, Recessional. I was fortunate to have lovely friends perform these pieces (and more) at our wedding.
“in memory of” was written as a memorial tribute to Joanna’s mother Susan, who unexpectedly passed away the year before, and my aunt Susan who had also recently lost her battle with cancer. This performance is from a live student recital with me playing the piano.
ca. 4’
piano solo