When Music Sounds (2019)

Instrumentation: SSAA choir, piano

Estimated performance duration: 3:30

About the piece

When Music Sounds is a very special work to me, and the first of many firsts for me as a composer. One of those firsts was that it was the first time a person other than my dad asked me to write something for them. During a voice lesson, I was talking about my college decision process with my choir director Peggy Spool, the then-artistic director of the Vivace Youth Chorus of San Jose, and I had told her I was interested in studying music composition in college. She was surprised (since I rarely told anyone at that time that I composed) and then, after showing her some of my arrangements I'd made, she asked me to write a piece for the then-Teen Women's Ensemble, the ensemble I was also in at the time.

This piece was the product of that, and it was performed in May of 2019, at the end of my senior year of high school, in my last-ever concert with Vivace after 13 years of progressing through the choirs. The piece is meant to be like a little musical journey, with many different sections, which mirrors my times I've had in Vivace. It was the first-ever performance of an original composition of mine, and the response both from my fellow choristers and the audience helped me grow in confidence and passion in music composition. It was also super fun to be able to sing the piece and learn it with the choir. I owe so much to Vivace for being a constant and safe haven for me throughout my childhood, and a group where I made lifelong friends and so many unforgettable experiences, this performance being one of them.