THE LAB
MUSIC MADE DIFFERENTLY.
LARGE-SCALE CONSORTIUM COMMISSIONS THAT WEAVE CONNECTIONS ACROSS LANDS AND OCEANS AND CULTURES, BRINGING A NEW TYPE OF ACCESSIBLE, HIGH-OCTANE COLLABORATION TO COMMISSIONERS, A NEW WAY OF INCLUSIVE, HUMAN-AND-PLANET-CENTERED STORYTELLING TO AUDIENCES OF SO MANY TYPES IN SO MANY PLACES, AND A NEW KIND OF CREATION STORY TO THE CLASSICAL MUSIC CANON.
CONNECTION, COLLABORATION, CREATION, CONCERTIZING, AND CONSERVATION , USING TOOLS OF THE 21ST CENTURY.
Phase One
(2016-2017)
50 state sonata project (2016)
Stephanie’s first consortium project––and first 50 State Project––the 50 State Sonata Project brought new music quite literally to every corner of the US in 2016. Commissioned by violinists from nearly all 50 states, Amerigo for violin + piano is a six movement work—a movement for each time zone— that takes audiences on a cross-country trip of texture and resonance and mood as it gives focus to topography and nature and folk-music roots of those places. This was Part I of a two year project dedicated to the life and work of John Kendall, the man who brought the Suzuki method to the US in the 1960s and was Stephanie’s high school + college violin teacher.
World sonata project (2017)
In 2017, the solo violin sonata Nostrorbis—loosely translated from latin as “our world” (Nos, Orb)—was commissioned by violinists in 35 countries. The work contains seven movements, one for each continent, each movement a fleeting but immersive aural snapshot. After being workshopped and edited by its many loving parents, Nostrorbis was performed on a ten-concert tour of ancient Faroe Islands churches, in a bar in New York City, at a city-wide music festival in the Netherlands, on a cross-genre music series in Dublin, and in concert halls in Macedonia and Spain and Indonesia and elsewhere.
Phase Two
(2020-2021)
Flower Catalog (2020)
Flower Catalog is a set of 12 preludes for piano, each commissioned by a different piano soloist about her own favorite flower. The entire collection can live and breath as a full concert set, be used as an encore, or a favorite few can be programmed together as a “bouquet”. Commissioned by Lise de la Salle, Marianne Parker, Diane Katzenberg Braun, Eunbi Kim, Holly Roadfeldt, Adrienne Park, Susie Maddocks, Sarah Bob, Marta Aznavoorian, Jenny Lin, and Lucille Chung.
Flower Catalog collage by Sasha Parfenova,
commissioned for Flower Catalog
WORLD SONATA PROJECTS (2021)
A precursor to the Conservation Concertos, these projects were commissioned by musicians around the world and written about a natural material used to make the instrument or an animal closely associated with the instrument, mostly focusing on endangered species. These works include Songbird for flute + piano, Pearl for violin + piano, Cedar for cello + piano, and Ebony Arbor for solo guitar.
Lovebirds collage by Sasha Parfenova
Phase Three
(2022-2024)
With Four Future Memories—which received its Carnegie Hall debut in Spring 2024!—I've merged three worlds I love so much: the worlds of literature, of music, and of time in my own way, creating a set of short stories for string orchestra about the memories we may have someday in the distant future. Twilight Memoire–a Lyrical short story–takes us through a series of melodic tableaus as our main character reflects on an entire life in old age. Watercolor to the Moon–a Vignette short story–paints an eerie, dreamy trip around the moon in pastel hues. Rhythmics on Mars–an Adventure short story–is just that: a short, fast, vibrant excursion. The fourth memory? That's your own that you're making right now as you play the piece or listen to it.
The second piece in a planned “Anthology” of works for band, The Lifecycle of Stars’s three movements draw their inspiration from the stages of a star’s lifetime, beginning with shimmering clouds of dust all the way through to its eventual supernova (the explosive end of a star's life) and subsequent transition into either a black hole or a neutron star. Since supernovas become neutron stars or black holes depending on their mass, I’ve written two different endings to this piece for the ensemble to choose from.
Phase Four
(2025-2030)
Carnival of the Nearly Extinct Animals is a new consortium work for orchestra which follows the size and structure of Saint-Seans’s iconic work.
Movements talk and inspire about coral, bison, bees, whales, and other species you probably didn’t know that we’re very close to losing forever.
The Conservation Concertos, Stephanie’s biggest project to date, are a set of works for solo instrument and orchestra being written over the next decade, each about a different nearly-extinct flora or fauna, or environmental concern.