Ralph Lewis: Composer

A few weeks ago I was a special guest speaker for Five Towns College’s Graduate Analysis Course. I am from Long Island and some of my first and most inspiring memories happened on that campus when I was growing up. I presented about my work creating my dissertation “Aaron Cassidy’s Second String Quartet: Resilient Structures, Indeterminate Localities, and Performance Practice.” The class was extremely well-prepared regarding my research about Cassidy’s beautiful music, so we were able to move to a more conversational Q & A format.

I loved being in a situation with musicians including current public school music teachers, where we could talk frankly, safely, and thoughtfully about contemporary music. I thought the class had great, specific questions that reflected how they had delved into my research and thought about how it reflected on the needs of their practices. One of my favorite questions came from a very special member of the class, the man who, in the late 1990s, was the high school age assistant teacher that started me on viola (who apparently now runs that whole summer music program!). He was very curious about what would happen when performing Cassidy’s work with an ergonomic viola. I though it would be interesting to perform Cassidy’s work with one of them, especially because there is precedent in his other works where the individual performers’ reach, breath, and/or energy allows the range of the work to shift.

Starting this summer, I have been fortunate to have a series of performances and presentations of my work scheduled through the US as well as in Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Japan. In the US, preview performances of my “Another Chance So Suite” as the musical portion of choreographer Sara Hook’s “Dick and Janes” have been happening every few months on the way to the official premiere on October 13th as part of the University of Illinois October Dance concerts.

Earlier this summer, I had the opportunity to embark on the (virtual but based in Canada) Westben Performer-Composer Residency with my duo partner Dave O Mahony. In collaboration with Alex Hawthorn and Maddi Baird, we created a work entitled “From Ireland to Ojai.” In addition to its premiere as part of the residency, it has been selected for the Sonic Cartography at the University of Kent at the end of October.

Another portion of my very Canadian and virtual summer was spent collaborating with other creative folks as part of the Montreal Contemporary Music Lab. Our project “Manteau de Mains” has since been included in a New Music Mosaic virtual concert in August.

I’m also grateful for compositions also being featured as part of a ISSTA Soundwalk during the International Computer Music Conference in Limerick and for my friends flxnflx performing “Kib” live at De Montfort University’s Convergence 2022 recently. I have recently heard back from Audio Rocket Festival at Osaka University of Arts regarding programming one of my pieces and tomorrow, October 3rd, Anna Marshall will be giving the concert/world premiere of our site investigative work for horn and environmental drone “Hear There.”

In the last few years I have had the opportunity to contribute reviews to Computer Music Journal. As I update my website, I hope to keep a running list of links to them in the “Writing” tab above. One of my recent reviews of John Bischoff’s recent album Bitplicity and retirement concert (which I attended remotely). John’s music is very special and the concert’s dual focus on his careers as a solo musician and as part of collaborative network music groups felt like a thoughtful celebration. The solo set from the concert is half of the Bitplicity album, so including both seemed like a good idea. Looking forward, I am currently working on a few more reviews of some concerts and festivals for CMJ that I am hoping to deliver in a few months.

I am playing a bit of catch up on recent news, but one meaningful highlight was presenting the paper talk version of my dissertation research about Aaron Cassidy’s Second String Quartet at Society of Composers Inc.’s National Conference. It means a great deal to have had this opportunity to share about Cassidy’s work and my research about it after spending years developing my doctoral dissertation.

This last Saturday afternoon New Music Mosaic held concerts in Urbana, IL and Boston, MA. As part of this, saxophonist Wilson Poffenberger and percussionist Matt Carey premiered my “exhaustion in days of fury”–a work that I had begun a handful of years ago. I am so grateful for their effort and creativity. My piece begins at just before the 8 minute mark in this YouTube video of the livestream.

Recently All Score Urbana, an community engagement workshop program I founded in 2016, received another year of grant funding from the City of Urbana’s Arts and Culture Commission. More information about the free-to-the-public program, how to participate, and a sign-up sheet on this website are forthcoming. The program will begin in October 2022.

Teaching artists pianist/composer mezzo-soprano ShayLyssa Alexander, Dr. Michael McAndrew, jazz trombonist/composer/arranger Peter Tijerina, and I (I’ll be handling composition/theory/music technology) will be leading a series of events in the fall, beginning with a compose-a-thon event and concert in partnership with Rose Bowl Tavern. Workshops will then be offered to further build on those works, new works, or other already-in-progress works at Faith United Methodist Church, culminating in a performance and recording of all participants’ works.

This program is entirely free to the public thanks to the Urbana Arts and Culture Commission. Bring an idea or question and work with one of us on site. Bring something you’ve always hoped to have played–we’d love to help make that happen. Come try composing or songwriting for the first time with us–we purposely have teaching artists who specialize in being welcoming, kind, and genre-inclusive. For aspiring professional musicians or college students looking to strengthen portfolios, we would love to support you.

I am very excited to be taking part in this year’s College Music Society Great Lakes Regional Conference. I will be presenting a talk based on my dissertation “Aaron Cassidy’s Second String Quartet: Resilient Structures, Indeterminate Localities, and Performance Practice” and “Straight Into Tangles,” my orchestra work commissioned by Dr. Tiffany Chang and Oberlin Arts and Sciences Orchestra. The full dissertation is now online in a free to all space here: https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/113049

CMS Great Lakes was my first toe-dip into College Music Society several years ago. I like attending because of its presentations always reflect the organization’s inter-departmental focus.

This weekend I will be presenting a talk based on my dissertation “Aaron Cassidy’s Second String Quartet: Resilient Structures, Indeterminate Localities, and Performance Practice” and my orchestra work commissioned by Dr. Tiffany Chang and Oberlin Arts and Sciences Orchestra.

This will be the first time I get to publicly share about my dissertation research. The talk overlaps with the paper in many ways, but I’ve tried to make it something that fits a 20-ish minute presentation space. The full dissertation is now online in a free to all space here: https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/113049

I have a series of events coming up the next few months, but one special thing that happened a bit ago was that I was interviewed by The Arc Project. The article can be found here: https://www.arcprojectmusic.com/post/composer-spotlight-ralph-lewis