A clip from The One Who Leaps, commissioned by @jeffrey.grogan for @baylorsymphony , and the first piece I wrote during my gap year after Rice.
The music was inspired by Jericho Brown’s poem “Crossings,” from my favorite book of poetry. The title is taken from the poem’s last line, and in a lot of ways, so was my state of mind. This piece kept me sane during one of the most uncertain periods of my life, when I wasn’t sure what came next, but decided to take the leap anyway.
There’s plenty I’d do differently to the music with what I know now. But I don’t think I’ll ever stop loving this one.
Major life update: I’m moving to NYC 🗽🍎
This fall, I’ll be starting a fully funded Master’s in Music Composition at The Juilliard School as a proud recipient of Kovner Fellowship — studying with the incredibly wonderful composer and human, Nina C. Young.
A year ago, I couldn’t have imagined my life would look the way it does now. I started a gap year with truly NO IDEA what it could look like — and it took me to places (and continents 🇫🇷) I never would have predicted. The full story has many twists and turns, but at the center of it was one slow, uncomfortable lesson: learning to trust yourself, and being willing to take a bet on yourself.
To my people in Houston — my family, my friends, and everyone at Rice who watched this year unfold in real time — thank you for being with me in this year of uncertainty. You made the leap feel possible.
If you’re sitting in an in-between moment wondering if the pause is a mistake: it’s not. It’s doing something to you. Have the audacity to be the one who leaps (iykyk).
New York City — we’re doing this. 🖤!
Movement V: Psychic Space time, memory, rupture
Octavia Butler left us with her work — the power of the mind: limitless imagination, memories as cosmic time machines, and our positive obsessions that keep us (in)sane
Movement III: Outer Space — drift, void, longing.
Butler wrote worlds that existed beyond the ones we could see.
In this movement I am sitting with one of the oldest questions humanity has ever asked — are we ever truly alone? And what would happen if we ventured into the mystery of the universe to find out?
Movement II: Aquatic — cleanse, flow, reborn. This movement lives inside the tension between water's two most powerful properties: its ability to saturate completely, and its ability to cleanse totally. And what comes out on the other side of either process isn't always pure....
Movement I: Terrestrial Space— seeds, change, becoming.
Some of my favorite moments from a world thinking about change, environment, and human impact—present and future— on the planet we call home.
Stay tuned for the full recording!
What if we used music to explore impossible futures?
Dark Matter is a work for flute (@flutist_tyler ) and string ensemble( @kineticensemble ), inspired by the narrative world of Octavia Butler. The work is in five movements — each one a different space. Terrestrial. Aquatic. Outer. Cyber. Psychic.
As Butler reminds us, imagining impossible futures is the most powerful thing we can do in this world, because those impossible futures don't always remain impossible forever.
So grateful to my wonderful friend @flutist_tyler for writing such a wonderful piece with me. Gratitude to @kineticensemble for being phenomenal collaborators. And all thanks to @performingartshouston for allowing this work to have a life on their stage. This is where is all begins.
#darkmatter #newmusic #contemporaryclassical #blackcomposer #afrofuturism
"All that you change, changes you."
Coming soon: rising star @jaylin.vinson has written a new flute concerto inspired by the legendary Octavia Butler. @flutist_tyler joins Kinetic Ensemble, playing the role of a protagonist traversing different types of space: "from the grounded to the galactic, the digital to the mental interior."
Join us at @performingartshouston 's "New/Now" on March 20 and 21 to see the world premiere of Dark Matter, alongside new works from @scoredbykay and @aguilera_joel 's @mezcladadancecompany . Grab your pay-what-you-can tickets at the link in our bio!
STOP, LOOK, AND LISTEN! Come experience the premiere of a new song by @avalonhogans and myself, inspired by the Pop Art exhibit at @menilcollection . This Saturday, February 28th, 3PM. Tickets are FREE!!
SphinxConnect 2026 RECAP‼️
Words cannot express how GRATEFUL I feel after attending SphinxConnect. So please allow all these smiling faces to speak on my behalf. Looking forward to nexts years kiki 🤞🏽
This weekend’s violence is a devastating reminder that the promise of “inalienable rights” is only as evident as our collective willingness to uphold them - for everyone.
In October’s DECLARE concert, Apollo premiered We Hold These Truths…, a commissioned work by Rice University graduate composer Jaylin Vinson and Houston Poet Laureate Emeritus Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, confronting who this nation has been…and who it continues to choose to be.
➡️ We were immigrants with no country to pledge allegiance
➡️ How the ride over made “US” a complicated word
➡️ When it came time to declare,
We decided to be captors rather than companions 🔒
Let us all work more fervently and boldly to create compassion and cultural harmony. 🕊️💙
#ApolloChamberPlayers #WeHoldTheseTruths #DECLARE #HumanDignity #ArtAsWitness culturalharmony
