Hearing the Future 2025
Premieres by Young Composers Project Students
Sunday, May 4 at 4:00 PM (PART 2)
Portland State University, Lincoln Hall Room 75
Fear No Music's Young Composers Project (YCP) provides groundbreaking composition training and mentorship for youth interested in composing as a professional career or life passion. Students grades 5 - 12 train with the region's top professional musicians and composers, developing their new works through a series of workshops and public concerts.
PROGRAM
Shea Noll – Twilight Melody
Eva Feldman – Moonlight Murmuration
Khôi Campbell – Shores of the Cosmic Ocean
Delfina Cavanaugh – A Mournful Hope
Flash Inouye – Thunder Mountain
Julian Powell – 3rd Time’s the Charm
Anika Gupta – The Lost Fairy
William Zhang – Phytoplankton
Amelie Wright – Beast
Peregrine Autumn – Aerodynamics Girls Club
Ethan Monberg – Waves on a Sandbar
Jasper Gillispie – Said Moth to a Lantern
Maxwell Evans-McGlothin – The Hunting Murder
Josh Choe – Tree, Pursuit, Labyrinth, Escape
James Lee – Breath of the Prairie
Lex Kornelis – Broken Dance
Young Composers Project Musicians:
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John C. Savage (flute) has been compared to Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Herbie Mann, Noah Howard, Ian Anderson, and Colin Stetson. Savage has performed and recorded with, among others, Esperanza Spalding (for Bienestar Oregon), Cartridge (The Black Heron and the Spoonbill), the Andrew Hill Big Band (A Beautiful Day), Billy Fox and Mark Dresser (The Uncle Wiggly Suite) and releases on PJCE Records (Ekta, Demolition Duo, From Maxville to Vanport, Senses Sharpened). Savage frequently performs with poet Claudia Saleeby Savage as Thick In The Throat Honey, the free jazz trio Krüd, and Lie Very Still, which performs Savage’s compositions influenced by classical composition, improvisation, metal, and a dystopian future. He also performs with The Bundy Band, a twelve-piece New Orleans Jazz influenced group with a distinctly Pacific Northwest flavor. His chamber music group, Re:Soundings Trio, collaborated with NEA Jazz Master Roscoe Mitchell and may be heard on his release, Distant Radio Transmission (Wide Hive Records, 2020). Savage holds a Ph.D. from New York University with emphases in flute performance, improvisation, and music theory. He teaches both at Reed College and Mount Hood Community College. www.johncsavage.com
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Performing in many genres, Kirt Peterson has been a freelance woodwind musician in Portland for almost 35 years, starting out performing in large and small jazz ensembles, Latin jazz ensembles and musical theater orchestras. Kirt performs regularly with the Oregon Symphony, and in 2016 and 2018, he was a featured soloist with the orchestra. Other local ensembles Kirt has performed with include Fear No Music, Third Angle New Music, Portland Chamber Orchestra, Pink Martini and the Young Composer’s Project. When not busy performing or working in his career in maritime logistics, Kirt lives in Beaverton with his wife and two cats, helping tend to their 250 bush rose garden.
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Cellist Heather Blackburn has been lauded for her “burnished tone” (The Oregonian) and for “her gorgeous tone and playing unerringly in tune” (Seattle Post Intelligencer). Heather was appointed to 4 one-year positions with the Oregon Symphony and has performed as guest principal cello for Portland Opera, Symphony Tacoma and Tulsa Symphony. She has given Oregon premieres of works by Joan Tower and Esa -Pekka Salonen, has been a featured soloist with Portland Symphonic Choir, and has performed and recorded with Pink Martini, Portland Cello Project, soul singer Ron Artis and indie band Other Lives. Heather currently teaches cello and chamber music at George Fox University and University of Portland. Heather was invited to perform a solo recital featuring music by Amy Beach as part of the “Women in Music” series at Chadron State College, NE in March. Upcoming concerts include a livestream with cellist Diane Chaplin of works by Giovanni Sollima, a recital in her home state of New York and a solo performance with the University of Portland Orchestra.
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Dr. Stephen Lewis is a composer, pianist, and conductor living in Portland, Oregon, whose music inhabits the terrain between sound as physical sensation and sound as signifier of culture. Hailed as “delectable,” with a “constantly shifting sonic world [that] proved fascinating and effective,” Stephen’s chamber opera, Noon at Dusk, was premiered at UC San Diego in 2016. He has been commissioned by or written works for the Delgani String Quartet, Cascadia Composers, the Wellesley Composers Conference, red fish blue fish, UC San Diego's Palimpsest ensemble, the Diagenesis Duo, Gnarwhallaby, Trio Kobayashi, Aurora Borealis, and a number of individuals. Stephen has performed in solo and ensemble concerts at Miller Theater in New York, Severance Hall in Cleveland, the Walt Disney and Zipper Halls in Los Angeles, and at smaller venues throughout the United States. Stephen maintains a private studio of piano, composition, and music theory students. He completed the PhD in Composition at UC-San Diego in 2015, where he studied with Rand Steiger. Subsequently, he completed the DMA in Contemporary Piano Performance in 2017, where he studied with Aleck Karis. Stephen is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he majored in piano and composition.
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Dr. Brian Gardiner is a versatile percussionist in Portland, Oregon. He holds section percussion positions with the Portland Opera and Oregon Coast Music Festival Orchestra, is principal percussionist with the Portland Choir and Orchestra, and performs regularly with the Oregon Symphony. He has appeared on stage with such notable acts as The Who, Andrea Bocelli, Nas, David J (Bauhaus, Love and Rockets), Doug Martsch (Built to Spill), Alex Maas (The Black Angels), Johnny Mathis, The Indigo Girls, and Béla Flek.
As a supporter of new music, Brian co-founded the Portland Percussion Group (PPG) in 2011, which has since become a mainstay in the contemporary music space in Portland. To date, the group has worked with composers to create over 60 new works for percussion quartet and continues to look for ways to develop new sounds, explore new spaces, and engage new audiences. The Portland Percussion Group also extends into educational outreach through involvement with young percussionists in our region and the creation of new educational opportunities for developing percussionists. The PPG frequently presents clinics and workshops at universities throughout the Northwest and United States on the topic of chamber percussion repertoire and performance as well as maintaining an ongoing involvement with the Portland Summer Percussion Academy.
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For his work with young composers, pianist and conductor Jeff Payne was awarded the 2022 Musical Hero Award by the Metropolitan Youth Symphony. He founded Fear No Music with percussionist Joel Bluestone in 1992, and has performed hundreds of concerts with the group across the United States. During his tenure as Artistic Director for the group he was responsible for presentation of twenty World Premiere or American Premiere performances of works by Pacific Northwest composers. In 1997 he founded the Young Composers Workshop, and continues as its Director, overseeing the development of aspiring young creative minds around the region. The 25tth anniversary of the Young Composers Project was featured in articles in the Oregonian and Oregon Arts Watch.
Payne’s complete performance of Messiaen’s “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jesus” was named one of the Ten Best Concerts of the year by the Oregonian. Heralded by the Boston Globe as “a pianist of chameleon abilities,” Payne has performed on WGBH National Public Radio in Boston, KING radio in Seattle, All-Classical and KOPB radio in Portland, at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Norton Gallery in Palm Beach, at the Seattle Spring Festival, at Eugene's Music Today Festival, the Ernest Bloch Festival, and the Oregon Bach Festival. He has performed as soloist with the Vancouver Symphony, and the Yaquina Chamber Symphony. Payne holds a law degree from Lewis & Clark Law School and is a Senior Assistant Attorney General with the Oregon Department of Justice.
Biographies & Program Notes
Shea Noll
Twilight Melody
BIOGRAPHY
Shea Noll is a 7th grader at Lake Oswego Middle School. His parents are Laila and Galen Noll, and his brother is Kian. Shea plays the piano, soccer, and chess. Shea won songwriting competitions in the last few years but he believes that his journey as a composer is just beginning. He has also won soccer tournaments and math competitions. Shea’s piano teacher is Jessica Carnevale and his school music teacher is Jessica McKiernan.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
My piece is called Twilight Melody. This piece has an A-B-A structure. The A section is a happy slow major key, but the B section is a faster minor key. The piece is meant to resemble the conflicting views of a calm sunset, and a dying sun.
Eva Feldman
Moonlight Murmuration
BIOGRAPHY
Eva Feldman is a sixth grader at Northwest Academy in Portland, Oregon. She has studied cello for seven years with Jonathan Cheskin at the Community Music Center and plays with the Metropolitan Youth Symphony. She also plays flute in her school band, directed by Bryan Smith, who is her mentor for the Young Composers Project. Outside of music, Eva enjoys photography, digital animation, and swimming. She lives in Portland with her father, Caleb Feldman.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
My piece is called Moonlight Murmuration. It is written in A major and moves from dissonance to resolution, inspired by the feeling of being underwater and by the way patterns in nature shift and unfold under moonlight.
Khôi Campbell
Shores of the Cosmic Ocean
BIOGRAPHY
Khôi Campbell has been composing music for 1 ½ years. He attends Chief Umtuch Middle School and is in the 7th grade. His parents are Dan and Alysse Campbell, and he has a younger sister, Mai Ly. Khôi plays eiight instruments and participates in activities such as concert band, jazz band, marching band, and martial arts. His music teachers are Asher Pol, Aaron Tuchardt, and Ryan Francis.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
My piece is called “Shores of the Cosmic Ocean.”. The song is like a very altered sonata form, being Intro-A-B-A-Development-B Prime-A-B Double Prime-Outro. With the A section in a minor key depicting angry crashing waves. The B sections in the relative major key depict calm and smoothly flowing waves in the vast ocean, and the B sections vary between major and minor representing the randomness of the ocean’s waves. And in the development section, the waves crash harder and harder. With the form being more free than most songs it again shows the unpredictability of the ocean. It ends as the waves slowly get calmer and the harsh storm of the Cosmic Ocean finally ends.
Delfina Cavanaugh
A Mournful Hope
BIOGRAPHY
Delfina Cavanaugh is in ninth grade at Parkrose high school. She plays guitar, violin with the Metropolitan Youth Symphony, percussion for 2 of her school bands, and piano for the jazz band. Delfina studies music theory and composition with Dr. Kirsten Volness. Aiming to create compositions that evoke powerful emotions, she uses inspiration from both classical and modern influences in genres such as Latin, jazz, and orchestral. Delfina also enjoys hobbies such as making art, writing stories, learning languages, and is a hard-working member of her school’s varsity dance team. Delfina is very thankful to the Community Music Center for making learning the violin a possibility when she was little, and she hopes to one day make music education accessible for future generations. She aspires to become a music composer for film and TV, and hopes to create compositions that paint vivid pictures and emotional experiences for listeners.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
A Mournful Hope began with C minor scale improvisations and chord combinations, and eventually evolved into a piece with layers and depth from flute, clarinet, piano, cello, and vibraphone. The goal of the piece is to take listeners on an emotional journey: starting with eerie mournfulness, then into whimsical chaos, next into a passage of romantic sorrow, and finally ending with a theme of nostalgic hope filled with both melancholy and happiness.
Flash Inouye
Thunder Mountain
BIOGRAPHY
Flash Inouye is a fifth grader at Duniway Elementary School. His parents are Dana and Lance Inouye, and he is one of four siblings. A passionate young musician, Flash had his first original composition "Look at all the Stars" premiered by the Willamette Valley Symphony in October 2024. He was selected to represent his school in the PPS Honor Choir this spring and sings with the Pacific Youth Choir. As a cellist, he plays with the Metropolitan Youth Symphony and has performed with the Lewis & Clark Orchestra on several occasions. In March, Flash had the thrill of performing the principal role of Danny in Portland Opera’s production of The Shining. Flash also enjoys soccer and Taekwondo, and studies cello with Corey Averill.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
I got the inspiration for this piece from the book Thunder Rolling in the Mountains, by Scott O'Dell and Elizabeth Hall. The opening theme represents the beginning of a thunderstorm and then it transforms into a calmer mood after the storm. I'm in the process of writing different themes for each character. This piece is a shorter, condensed version of the overture to what will become an opera that I am writing called Thunder Rolling in the Mountains.
Julian Powell
3rd Time’s the Charm
BIOGRAPHY
Julian Powell is a sophomore at Lake Oswego High School. He plays the piano and has been studying cello with Timothée Berte-Renou for six and a half years. Last year, he switched from classical piano to jazz, and his current piano teacher is Kiran Raphael. He performs in the Lake Oswego High School Symphony Orchestra and the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Concert Orchestra. This is his first year with YCP, and he says “it's been an amazing experience.”
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
My musical inspiration comes from a mix of influences. My mom, Gloria Chang, loves classical music, while my dad, Eric Powell, is all about Rock 'n' Roll. I dive into classical pieces with my cello and jazz on the piano. I named my composition "3rd Time's the Charm," because I faced several technical challenges while composing it, and it finally came together on the third attempt. The music my parents enjoy and the pieces I learn on both instruments–classical, jazz, and Rock 'n' Roll–shape my style. This blend of three distinct styles is reflected in my piece.
Anika Gupta
The Lost Fairy
BIOGRAPHY
Anika Gupta is a junior at Sunset High School, and she has always loved music. Anika lives with her parents Seema and Ajay, and has an older sister. Besides composition, she also plays classical and flamenco guitar. She enjoys engineering and loves learning more about the natural world as well as the music world–and how they intersect. She currently learns guitar under Travis Johnson and has participated in numerous music programs including NPR’s From the Top fellowship.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
My piece is called “The Lost Fairy”. It starts out in a major key (because the fairy is safe at home!) and as the fairy wanders further, it gets a bit more ominous. Finally, the fairy returns home carrying these memories with her. I hope you enjoy making up your own story to go along with the music!
William Zhang
Phytoplankton
BIOGRAPHY
William Zhang is a pianist and composer who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his parents, Todd Zhang and Julie Wang. As a pianist, he has performed on numerous television programs and has won many awards. He performed at Carnegie Hall and Emory University in 2019. William received a Public Proclamation from the Milton City Council honoring his achievement in piano performance. In 2020, William appeared on NBC Little Big Shots Season 4 with Melissa McCarthy and performed Chopin’s “Minute waltz’”and his own work. In 2024, William was selected to illustrate the personality trait Optimism for the Genius World program. William started improvisation and composition when he was five, and when he was nine he released his first album for original compositions. William completed his orchestral piece, “Blue Dragon,” when he was 9 years old. His brass quintet, “Battle of Giants and Dragonflies” was performed by Manhattan Brass based in New York City. His piano trio, “Of Ice and Fire” was premiered by Indiana University’s chamber music group. His choral piece “Crossing the Bar” based on Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem, will be premiered in New York city by the New York Virtuoso Singers in May.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
Phytoplankton brings the listener on an expedition to unveil a hidden treasure in the ocean, the tiny microbes, phytoplankton, that produce more than 50% of Earth’s oxygen. Sunlight pierces the water with its warm and hospitable rays, as the listener beholds a vast, blue ocean through an invisible camera. At first, there is no sound, and the listener observes nothing but purity and beauty of the ocean. Distant calls and moans of whales soon break the silence, awakening the listener’s senses. The camera begins to speed up as it catches strong underwater currents. Eventually, the listener is led to a coral reef, bustling with life. Clownfish, with glistening orange stripes add to the kaleidoscope of a wide variety of corals, sponges, and kelp. As the camera moves on, the listener embarks on a journey out to the open seas once more. The camera is now set on the phytoplankton to give the listener a 360-degree view. The phytoplankton seem to form a galaxy of green and blue crystals, like gems in nature. Finally, the camera rises above the ocean, and it is now evening. Broken stars twitter on the wild waves, while a distant moon casts its algid, yet thoughtful gleam on the serene and never-ending sea. The piece opens in G Minor, as the key adds to the suspense and wonder of the piece. As the piece progresses, B Flat Major is introduced, bringing a notion of peace to the later sections as they explore the microscopic world of phytoplankton.
Amelie Wright
Beast
BIOGRAPHY
Amelie Wright is a junior at Lakeridge High School. Her mother Maho Nabeshima and her father Cody Wright are both musicians and have helped her along her composing journey; her dad is her composition teacher. In addition to Young Composers Program, she has participated in the Young Jazz Composers Program with the Portland Jazz Ensemble. She also acts in her school’s theater program, sings in the Pacific Youth Choir, plays violin in her school orchestra, and studies Japanese Calligraphy. She recently earned an honorable mention in the OMEA Composition Competition, as well as a national silver medal, gold key, and honorable mention in the writing category of the Scholastic Art and Writing Competition.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
My piece is titled “Beast.” I was inspired by a blue whale’s migration through the sea. I wanted to invoke a feeling of deep-sea mystery and serenity, using the flute and piano to build up the “bubbling” quality of water. The violoncello represents the “beast” itself. I messed around with various extended techniques for the instruments to add some textural interest to the piece.
Peregrine Autumn
Aerodynamics Girls Club
BIOGRAPHY
Peregrine Autumn is an electronic musician from Portland Oregon. He is homeschooled and plays piano. His composition teachers are Rainyanni Paris from My Voice Music and Dr. Stephen Lewis. He also takes voice lessons with Jesse Preis at Hoffman Academy. At 13 he started producing ambient/noise, and he attends My Voice Music's Amplify High School program and loves going on hikes and long walks.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
Aerodynamics Girls Club began its roots some time last year. It started with a simple pattern of five notes. The piece was already fully arranged for piano by the time I began YCP. Since then I've added many more instruments. During this process, much to my surprise, it has grown into a more colorful and hopeful piece than the brutal first draft.
Ethan Monberg
Waves on a Sandbar
BIOGRAPHY
Ethan Monberg is in ninth grade at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy in Philadelphia. His parents are Matthew and Jennifer Monberg. His compositions have received both state and divisional awards from MTNA – Alfred Music, as well as awards from the Golden Key International Music Festival, Pacific Musical Society & Foundation Competition, Helping with Arts Composition Competition, the Jamie Bell Recording Project, Berlioz International Music, Bach International Music, Max Bruch International Music, and many others. He was also awarded a Composer Fellowship at Suncoast in August 2024. His music has been performed by Hypercube and the Allentown Symphony Orchestra, and his opera, “The Mime” was performed by the Philadelphia Vocal Conservatory. He will premiere his piece “Summer Drive” this April at Kaufman Music Center in New York and this July at Ehrbar Hall as well as Bӧsendorfer Hall at the Mozarthaus in Vienna. Ethan is a member and soloist with the Philadelphia Boys Choir and Chorale. He has appeared in numerous operas with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Opera Philadelphia, including starring as Amahl in Opera Philadelphia’s Amahl and the Night Visitors. He is a student of Phillip Roberts of the Interlochen Center for the Arts, Susan Nowicki of the Curtis Institute, and Michael Ashby, director emeritus of the Philadelphia Vocal Conservatory. When not performing in school productions, he enjoys participating in his school’s robotics and crew teams.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
My piece is called “Waves on a Sandbar.” The introduction section begins with rolling arpeggios depicting the waves and calm waters. The main theme and melody is in F major and is meant to symbolize waves crashing on a sandy shore. The waters become more murky and rough at times, but it eventually all gets washed away and returns to the rolling waves over a sandbar.
Jasper Gillispie
Said Moth to a Lantern
BIOGRAPHY
Jasper Gillispie is seventeen years old and a junior at Sunset High School. He lives with his parents, Susannah Axelrod and William Gillispie, his dog and cat, and he has an older brother who attends university out of state. Outside of composition, Jasper sings bass in Bridging Voices, Portland's queer youth choir, tutors elementary school students in science with his school's Science Ambassadors club, draws, writes, and animates. He has received recognition in writing and art for several Washington County Library contests, and he is a member of Bridging Voices audition-only octet, Suspensions. He has studied with Matt Katz for eight years. Jasper’s primary passion is storytelling in every form it takes, and composition is just one of the avenues he uses to approach it.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
My piece is titled "Said Moth to a Lantern", and primarily is a romance between its titular characters. I could be melodramatic and call it a meditation on a love that will inevitably destroy one of its participants, or I could be facetious and say it was inspired by the cooked bugs in my lamps, but ultimately I'll leave that distinction, as well as the related but separate distinction of how literal the piece itself is, up to the audience. The orchestration and arrangement of the piece is largely built around the contrast between very high, light parts and more intense, dramatic, low sections, with the former heavily featuring the flute and clarinet and the latter foregrounding the piano and cello.
Maxwell Evans-McGlothin
The Hunting Murder
BIOGRAPHY
Maxwell Evans-McGlothin is a 17 year-old native Oregonian who will be a senior in the fall at Cleveland High School. Max began composing in Brooklyn, NY at PS39 when he was in 4th grade and was selected to participate in the New York Philharmonic Young Composers program. At Cleveland High School, Max excels academically, is a member of the National Honor Society, started a Dungeons & Dragons club with 30+students, and is the Public Relations Representative within school leadership. In April 2024, Music for an Imaginary Cartoon, which was co-commissioned and premiered by the Metropolitan Youth Symphony (MYS) was played by the Oregon Symphony as part of their Celebration Gala. Other compositions have been workshopped by Bang on a Can and commissioned by the MYS-Camerata. Max finds joy in playing co-ed soccer, mastering sourdough artisanal bread-baking, researching and preparing for his IB essay, his involvement with Next Up, and using his new film camera. Max’s parents are Ms. Chanda Evans and Mr. Shannon McGlothin. Max studies composition with Dr Ryan Francis and piano with Dr Stephen Lewis. This is Max’s seventh year in Young Composers Project.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
My newest piece, “Hunting Murder,” is rather dark. It was inspired by a raven, I saw on my way to my composition lesson, ironically the same lesson in which I began writing my new piece. The raven had some white feathers- which was unusual. It appeared as if it had been in a fight. This piece is about building tension filled with instruments- trills, fast staccato notes, quiet staccato notes, and most importantly climatic shifts. Ever present in the first half you will hear bell like sounds, reminiscent of a death knell. This builds an atmosphere drenched in chromatic cords falling into an eerie drawn out tension. The instruments hum back to life ever quietly while the bell-like sounds return in a slow steady rhythm. The piece crescendos into a hunt, characterized by violent short attacks, specifically heard in the cello, which symbolizes the raven. The tempo continues to build with the cello being supported by the other instruments. The famous “Dies irae” (Day of Wrath) motif appears from the cello signifying that death is near. The motif repeats with all instruments joining in cumulating with the cello playing an octatonic scale leading to the finale of the piece. The raven finishes its dance of death.
Josh Choe
Tree, Pursuit, Labyrinth, Escape
BIOGRAPHY
Josh Choe is a composer and pianist who studies composition Dr. Ryan Francis and piano with Dr. Renato Fabbro. He has been playing piano for six years and began composing music within the past year. A fifth-grader at Willamette Valley Academy, Josh enjoys music, mathematics, soccer, sumo wrestling, and traveling. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his parents, James and Mindy Choe.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
My piece is written in four movements – Tree, Pursuit, Labyrinth, and Escape. Tree is set in F major and represents peace and happiness, but unexpectedly modulates to D minor at the end, creating a sense of unease. Pursuit, in C minor, musically depicts a thrilling and monstrous chase through dark corridors. In Labyrinth, the piece returns to D minor, illustrating a maze full of mythical creatures, traps, and dangers. The final movement, Escape, in C♯ minor, suggests a desperate and perilous journey out of the labyrinth…though it remains unclear whether the escape is truly possible.
James Lee
Breath of the Prairie
BIOGRAPHY
James Lee is a 17-year-old composer, classical and jazz pianist, and multi-instrumentalist. A junior at Wilsonville High School, he performs regularly with the symphony orchestra, symphonic band, jazz band, pit orchestra, and pep band. He currently studies composition with Jennifer Wright and classical piano with Julia Lee. James’s compositions have earned regional recognition, including first place in the 2025 MTNA Northwest Division Composition Competition and advancement to the national round. He has participated in Young Composers Project for three years. His recent work includes scoring an animated short film in collaboration with PAM CUT, with the final soundtrack performed by the MYS Symphony Orchestra. As a performer, James was selected to play percussion with the 2025 OMEA All-State Wind Ensemble. He also writes for the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble’s Young Jazz Composers program and has composed for a wide range of ensembles, including big bands, string orchestras, percussion ensembles, and mixed chamber groups. In addition to performing, he frequently accompanies vocalists and instrumentalists at solo competitions, with many advancing to the state level.
Outside of music, James holds a black belt in Taekwondo and teaches classes alongside his brother at his father’s dojang. He enjoys golfing, drawing, and hosting jam sessions at his house—where creative ideas often spark into new compositions. James’ parents are Lisa and Chang Lee.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
This piece paints a vast landscape—open plains rimmed by gentle groves and distant, watchful mountains. A soft breeze stirs through the tall grasses, winding its way across the prairie with quiet determination. The breeze is very characterful in the sense that it can grow and dissipate, and can pick up smaller things as it flows, like crumpled leaves and twigs. The wind is represented by the gong, an instrument that has its own sensitive nature that likes to wander in the harmonious sounds it makes. The woodwinds depict the wind's strength, producing effects of speeding up or calming down. Similarly, the cello also reflects on the characteristics of the wind, adding extra effects that resonate in higher and lower registers. And finally, the piano brings everything together, portraying the forests and grasslands the wind takes its journey through. At the height of the piece, the wind ascends the mountain’s peak. In that moment, the sound swells into a panoramic vista—an arrival that feels both powerful and serene, as if the wind pauses to take in the expanse of the world it’s traversed.
Lex Kornelis
Broken Dance
BIOGRAPHY
Lex Kornelis is a pianist and composer who plans to score for film, TV, and video games. Lex is a senior at Northwest Academy and will be attending Carnegie Mellon University this fall for a dual degree in Music Composition and Environmental Science. Her parents are Lolly Ward and Nathan Kornelis, and her sister, Clara, is also a musician at NWA. Lex is the pianist for her school’s improv group, where she improvises scoring and songs on the spot for comedy performances. She is currently working on the score for a video game due out this summer. Lex has won several composition awards through OFMC, NFMC, OMTA, and MTNA, and she was commissioned to write a piece for the Metropolitan Youth Symphony, premiering this spring. Lex volunteered at OMSI and is an Eagle Scout; her final project was building a bioswale fence in her neighborhood’s Gabriel Park. She is thankful to have studied piano with Nancy Stone and composition with Dr. Ryan Francis and to have participated in this life-changing program under the direction of Jeff Payne.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
"Broken Dance" is a flamenco piece that gradually falls apart over the course of four minutes. The changing time signature is designed to throw the listener off balance. The motifs that are introduced and developed over the course of the first half collide to create the climax. Each new section brings additional dissonance, until the end, when it feels as if the dance is attacking you.
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Fear No Music is supported by funding from: Ronni LaCroute, Reed College, New Music USA, Oregon Arts Commission, Multnomah County Cultural Coalition, and Regional Arts and Culture Council.