Aspirations (2004) 
I. Discovery
II. Pursuit
Duration:10:00
Instrumentation: Chamber Orchestra
Program Notes: 

Throughout the piece, you will hear an evolution of musical motives and melodic fragments which were inspired by events in my life. The two movements, Discovery and Pursuit, have meaning in my own life, but I prefer to have the music tell the story.

The character of the first movement, Discovery, is lyrical, mysterious, and passionate.Discovery contains two main melodic ideas, both of which are introduced by the clarinet. These melodic fragments begin by emphasizing the intervals of a second and a seventh, both major and minor. As the ideas grow, the melodies are passed around to different instruments.

Pursuit is intense and rhythmically driven, using jazz-inspired syncopations and metric displacements. The characteristic of its harmonic material is biting dissonance. This movement is in three sections, in which you will hear two main motives. Motive “A” is introduced as a rhythmic, melodic motive stated by the woodwinds. Motive “B” is stated initially in the strings as an ascending line with large leaps. The two motives overlap in the beginning and pull further apart from each other as the piece progresses. As these motives evolve, they change in character and disguise themselves from their original. In section three, you will hear both transformed motives together in layers, with fragments of each layer passed around the orchestration.