Composer Reel

The Gift is a short film which recently won best documentary at the Chicago International Reel Shorts Festival. It documents the perspectives of 10 young Chinese American women, who were adopted from China from 1998 to 2001 during China’s one-child policy, which was implemented in 1979 and discontinued in 2016. These women were adopted into families who traveled together initially in 1998 to adopt baby girls. Later, several of these families returned to China to adopt another girl, and in one instance, another girl and a boy. All of the adoptees in this group of families have a bond that has continued over the years. I composed the music for this film with traditional Chinese music elements in mind. The instrumentation includes piano, guitar, and handbells. One featured characteristic used throughout is the pentatonic scale, which is heard in most Chinese music. This work is dedicated to everyone in my China group family.

Under The Sycamore is an animated film with pre-recorded instrumentals. It features alto saxophone, bass trombone, trumpet, piano, violin, cello, double bass, and percussion. The music and animation work together to present the journey of grief and loss through the eyes of a mother and daughter.

Whales Find a Piano is an electroacoustic piece depicting a pod of whales interacting with a Yamaha Baby Grand Piano under the sea. The piece uses real whale calls with permission from the Oceana Project of the humpback whale, orca whale, and white whale species recorded on the southern hemisphere spring equinox in Hervey Bay, Australia.

 Land And Space

Land and Space is an electroacoustic piece exploring the contrast in sounds heard between a busy life on the ground and the tranquil atmosphere of space and the sky. The video shown emphasizes this contrast by alternating between clips of New York City at night with shots of the Chicago sky.