Performance Notes:

When my friend Karina Warfel approached me in the Fall of 2025 about a collaboration between us, I was thrilled. Warfel is a talented sculptor, who had interest in creating musical instruments for me to compose with. This was a lengthy and fun process of working with her, she spent so much time and effort into creating this deconstructed piano and the harp chime, and I also spent a lot of time detuning them! I want to thank Karina Warfel for allowing me to work on such a fun and unique project! I see many more collaborations in our future.

Commoner was inspired by the weight of every day life. The feeling of insignificance and unimportance are strong in our cultural climate. I often think about all the horrible things happening around the world, and feel even when showing up where I can, I don’t make an impactful difference. I find that this is a shared sentiment with a lot of people. I had the thought that while I feel like a “commoner”, someone who has no real impact on the world around me, the power of community is what will prevail. When a community holds a great evil accountable, change with happen. While the piece is quiet eerie and almost haunting, I find the energy and momentum throughout the piece prevails.