Moonmouth (Michaël Attias)- Michaël Attias was the artist in Residency at U of T in the winter of 2025, and I was asked to arrange and conduct one of his pieces for his concert with the 12tet ensemble. I studied with Michael a few years previously at a summer intensive at the School of Improvised Music in Brooklyn, New York. Even in the short time he was my ensemble leader, the outlooks he taught us still guide much of my artistic approach.

To arrange his piece for this ensemble, I opened up the harmonies of his bass line to see how I could keep the core of the piece and expand on it. As most of the piece was in an odd time signature but students were working with limited rehearsal time, I did not want to overcomplicate the piece but wanted to let its eerie mood set the tone. I did this by changing harmonies through subtle voice leading and adding vibrato in closely voiced harmonies that opened up into more full voicings during interlude sections..