In a Few - for sinfonietta. Premiered in April 2024 by the Eastman Graduate Composers Sinfonietta with Floris van der Veken conducting. 1.1.1.1.—1.1.1.1—2perc—pno—hp—1.1.1.1.1.

In a Few is built on interruption. The title implies an act of delaying, a putting-off of an important event or obligation until an unspecified later time. In the piece, this delaying manifests as sections that construct certain ideas and textures in considerable detail, constantly raising tension and lunging toward climactic moments, only to immediately contract and discard the built-up material. In this way, In a Few can be considered almost as a series of miniatures that share foundational elements and which collectively propel toward a thematic conclusion.

I would like to acknowledge that while writing this piece, I drew a great deal of conscious and unconscious inspiration from Afro-Cuban Guaguancó music—specifically the music of Los Muñequitos de Matanzas and Carlos “Patato” Valdez. My initial idea for In a Few was to create a musical tribute to my Cuban side of the family, especially my late Tios Julio—the man who I am named after—and Jose. Tio Jose had a huge musical impact on me as a child, and I remember with great fondness listening to him serenading my family on his guitar at our dinners together. He had a beautifully tender voice, and his guitar playing had a delicacy that often lent a hint of wistfulness to his performances. While trying to gather material for this piece, I started researching various strains of Cuban music, and the tradition of Guaguancó stood out to me for its rhythmic intricacies and its wonderful lyricism. Initially, its influence was to be much more explicit throughout the work, but I would like to think that glimmers of its essence were preserved in the later stages of writing,

This piece was written for the Graduate Composers Sinfonietta at the Eastman School of Music, a terrific ensemble organized by graduate students in the composition department and composed of student instrumentalists. I would like to thank Floris Van der Veken for graciously offering to conduct the premiere, as well as Tucker Johnson, Kou Muramatsu, and Marlies Hollevoet who worked diligently to put the ensemble together. I would also like to thank the musicians of the Graduate Composers Sinfonietta, without whose artistry and tremendous skill I would never have been able to write this piece.