Premiered on November 10th, 2023 by the San Francisco Symphony, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen

Featured Performance: March 23rd, 2024 by the New World Symphony, conducted by Edwin Outwater

Commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony in collaboration with the San Francisco Conservatory in fulfillment of the 2022 Emerging Black Composers Project first prize

All artists have obsessions, and some obsessions are life-long. A few of my own have been classical-era musical forms like sonata and rondo form, modern pop song structures, bass-driven grooves, polyrhythm, and vernacular musical styles—in short, chasing after the sweet spot of what’s catchy and complex. This piece incorporates all of these elements; it is a concise distillation of my musical philosophy and my feelings about the San Francisco Bay Area, my home.

Premiered by the JACK Quartet

Overdrive is a progressive metal song for string quartet. It was inspired by the music of Periphery, a band which uses detuned, extended range guitars to create dense, high-octane music. This piece uses brutal, unpitched string techniques to imitate the sounds of metal. Often, the appeal of listening to metal lies in hearing the constant oscillation between clean sounds, harsh, distorted sounds, and all the shades of grey in between. This timbral conflict is the heart of this piece. With it, I hope to evoke the spectacle of this genre which is so dear to my heart.

Program

Jens Ibsen - Scene Symphony
SFCO Commission with support from the NEA

Philip Glass - Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra
Jory Vinikour, harpsichord

Joseph Haydn - Symphony No. 49 “La Passione”

Scene Symphony is my latest symphony for string orchestra. It is a tribute to the metal/heavy music scene that brings its excitement and fervor to the concert hall. Come hear the premiere of the first two movements! Like all SFCO performances, it is free.

‍