ATTENTION GRABBING HEADLINE
"Emerge" for Wind Ensemble (2025) - 3'
Inspired by the short film Emerge by Rena Thomas In September 2024, I was honored to receive a commission from Amy Brandon at Dalhousie University to compose a short piece in response to Rena Thomas’s Emerge for Wind Ensemble. Thomas’s masterful interplay of distortion and moving imagery immediately captured my imagination. The juxtaposition of women and nature in her work served as a profound inspiration for my composition. Drawing from this duality, I crafted a soundscape that weaves together unconventional textures and evocative gestures. Key clicks and air sounds evoke raw, organic rhythms, while chants add a layer of ritualistic intensity. Amidst these sonic elements, an old Mexican melody emerges, ghostlike, threading through the fabric of the piece—a fleeting reminder of memory and tradition. This collaboration allowed me to explore themes of contrast and connection, creating a dialogue between the ephemeral and the eternal.
"IN TIME" for String Orchestra (2025) - 3'
"IN TIME" explores the themes of changing times. While the whole piece remains in the same tempo, or "in time." I would like to invite listeners to ponder the fleeting nature of time and the impact of financial decisions on individuals and societies. By juxtaposing these two fundamental aspects of human existence, the quartet prompts reflection on the interconnectedness of past, present, and future, as well as the delicate balance between risk and reward.
IGNITE for Piano, Electric Guitar, and Chamber Orchestra (2021/2022) – 5’
IGNITE is a lively fanfare that celebrates the inaugural concert of Longy School of Music of Bard College’s newly formed ensemble “Orchestra Flex,” a reduced version of the Longy Conservatory Orchestra. The piece begins with a spark of motif on the solo piano, as it evolves into polyphonic swirls of sounds by woodwinds, brass, strings, and electric guitar. Wu describes IGNITE as a showcase of his Post-Minimalistic style, as well as the colours and virtuosity of piano, electric guitar, and large ensemble.
Whispers of Jukai (2022) – 7’
Whispers of Jukai is a symphonic poem that depicts a journey through death and reborn; all through the life cycle of a forest. Like civilization, the forest contains its own ecosystem. Death is only the beginning of a journey to reborn and transcendence.
Paliscapes (2017) -6’
Paliscapes is meant to create an ambient soundscape using the concept of palindromes. In this piece, the two different tempo markings depicts the two different phases of a palindrome; with the A section slow and staggering, and the B section with more motivic motion.