PROGRAM NOTES
Composer: Eunike Tanzil (b. 1998)
Indonesian composer, producer, and pianist Eunike Tanzil is an internationally recognized artist working at the intersection of concert music and film. A graduate of Berklee College of Music and The Juilliard School, she signed an exclusive agreement with Deutsche Grammophon in 2024, marking a significant milestone in her career. Her orchestral works have been performed internationally, including a premiere with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and her recordings continue to expand her global artistic presence.
In addition to her work in concert and film music, Tanzil has cultivated a significant international audience through digital platforms, where she engages hundreds of thousands of listeners worldwide — redefining how contemporary composers connect with new generations.
I first met Eunike during our studies at Berklee College of Music / Boston Conservatory, and since then we have remained close friends and collaborators here in Los Angeles. During the pandemic, I recorded Letters from Behind the Veil for her in my closet — a moment of physical isolation that paradoxically strengthened our artistic connection. Being able to perform two of her works on this recital feels especially meaningful, reflecting both our shared history and her evolving compositional voice.
I chose to open and close this recital with Eunike’s music as a way of framing the program through transformation — from inward reflection to radiant color.
Piece: Letters from Behind the Veil (2020)
From the composer:
Out of all my past compositions, this one feels the most personal to me. I wrote this piece during the pandemic and at the end of my undergraduate studies, about a month before graduation. Because of Covid-19 restrictions, I spent most of my days alone in my room reflecting on the early years of my musical journey and wondering about my future career.
Looking back, I realized how much I had changed during those four years. Although I was still the same person, I saw my metamorphosis in my beliefs, values, and ways of thinking. My personal and musical experiences shaped me into who I am today. At the same time, I recognized that not everyone welcomed these changes. As a result, I often felt the need to “put on a veil” while interacting with certain individuals.
This experience of continuously hiding oneself gave birth to this piece. It is an honest musical letter expressing one’s true self — hence its title. I chose the flute for its lyrical and articulate qualities, which resemble the human voice reading this letter.
For me, this piece feels like standing in stillness and allowing sound to reveal what words cannot. The flute becomes vulnerable, sometimes fragile, sometimes piercing — as if testing the space between concealment and revelation. Performing it now, in a room filled with people rather than isolation, feels like a quiet act of reclamation. - Antonina
Piece: Hues of Spring (2022)
From the composer:
Growing up in Indonesia, I had only ever experienced one season - summer all year round - before moving to the United States. It never occurred to me just how colorful and vibrant the trees would look and how beautiful the flowers would be when they bloom. Having recently moved to New York City in September 2021, I was inspired by how the colors change with the seasons - orange in the fall, white in winter, and pink in the spring. This piece reflects how the hues of spring bring joy and warmth to families and New Yorkers across the city.
Hues of Spring reflects this encounter with cyclical change and renewal. If Letters from Behind the Veil inhabits introspection and emotional depth, Hues celebrates lightness and expansion. Rhythmic vitality, jazz-inflected gestures, and vibrant tonal colors emerge like blossoms after dormancy. Closing the recital with this work feels intentional. After exploring identity, impermanence, memory, and elegy throughout the evening, we return to brightness — to warmth — to forward motion. The program resolves not in silence, but in color.
- Antonina
Composer: Roman Ryterband (1914–1979)
Polish composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist Roman Ryterband led a life shaped by migration, scholarship, and artistic curiosity. Born in Łódź, he pursued studies in Poland and Switzerland before eventually settling in Southern California. His creative life unfolded between Palm Springs, Laguna Beach, and Los Angeles, where he became an active cultural presence.
Ryterband’s music is melodically generous and immediately engaging, yet beneath its accessibility lies deep intellectual grounding informed by his ethnomusicological research. As a fellow Pole, I feel a personal connection to his artistic voice — particularly knowing that Laguna Beach, where he often spent time, is also where I find restoration from the intensity of a performing life.
These performances are made possible thanks to the dedication of his family, especially his daughter Diane, and the continued work of the Polish Music Center at USC in preserving and promoting his legacy.
Dialog for two flutes (1961)
Described by the composer as “a faun resting on a cliff and flirting with a dancing goat against a pastoral landscape of antique Hellas,” the work evokes playful echoes of Debussy and Honegger while ultimately standing as what Ryterband called a “scherzo stereofonico.” Built on chasing fugato motifs between two equal voices, the piece culminates in a calming unison.
Composed in Bern, Switzerland, it received First Prize in 1961 from the Chicago Chapter of the International Society for Contemporary Music.
Sonata for two flutes and harp
Composed during a similar period, this sonata reveals Ryterband’s affinity for the flute. The first movement unfolds as a refined and conversational exchange among the instruments, balancing lyricism with structural clarity.
Composer: Yeonsuk Jung (b. 1998)
Korean-born composer Yeonsuk Jung is an emerging voice in contemporary composition whose work explores harmonic language through both analog and digital processes. Blending acoustic textures with electronic sensibilities, his music reflects an interest in spatial design, layering, and gradual transformation of texture. His compositional approach often draws from conceptual frameworks related to urban planning and environmental space, resulting in sound worlds that feel both architectural and atmospheric.
Jung is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Composition at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he continues to refine a language centered on color, resonance, and expanded instrumental technique.
Path by the Sea for flute and harp (2026) - World Premiere
Path by the Sea draws from Jung’s childhood memories of the ocean near Incheon, South Korea. Though he did not grow up directly by the sea, it remained a formative presence in his imagination. Now living along the California coast, the Pacific continues to serve as a constant muse.
At the heart of the piece is an image that resonates deeply with the composer: a wave in the ocean — visible, radiant, measurable — that eventually dissolves back into the water from which it emerged. The wave disappears, yet the water remains. The music unfolds in a similar way — emerging from near silence, taking shape, shimmering in texture, and gradually dissolving — not as an ending, but as transformation: waves of sound forming an intimate dialogue between flute and harp.
In this work, flute and harp explore mesmerizing sonorities, oscillating between shimmer and airy, almost whimsical textures. Sound seems to arise from nothing and return to nothing. The conception of tone is inspired in part by the breath-infused qualities of traditional Korean flutes such as the dansō and tungso, where air is not concealed but becomes an integral component of the instrument’s voice. Here, breath, resonance, and color are inseparable.
The sonic palette feels impressionistic — elusive, or as I would say in Polish, nieuchwytne. We are honored to present the world premiere of this work tonight.
Composer: David Hernandez
Composer, guitarist, and concert producer David Hernandez is a versatile artist whose work spans concert music and visual media. His music has been performed by ensembles including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, USC Thornton Symphony, Sandbox Percussion, and the Lyris Quartet. A fellow of the Nancy and Barry Sanders Composer Fellowship Program, he composed El Gaucho for the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall. A graduate of the USC Thornton School of Music, he holds degrees in Composition and Classical Guitar Performance.
Piece: Improvisando for flute and guitar (2025) - Premiere
Improvisando, composed for DuoKava (Antonina Styczeń and Doris Ćosić), serves as the first movement of a planned triptych set within an imagined world of vivid color and narrative atmosphere. The work unfolds as a fluid dialogue between flute and guitar, embracing spontaneity and flexibility while maintaining structural coherence. Although an early version was shared last December, tonight marks its formal premiere.
Composer: Donald Crockett (b. 1951)
American composer Donald Crockett is a leading figure in contemporary concert music and a longtime member of the composition faculty at the University of Southern California. His works have been performed by major orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout the United States and internationally. Crockett’s music is known for its expressive lyricism, intricate rhythmic vitality, and finely shaped dramatic architecture.
I had the privilege of working closely with Don both at USC’s Edge Ensemble and as a Fellow of the Contemporary Ensemble at the Aspen Music Festival.
Piece: The Last Possibilities of Light
From the composer:
The Last Possibilities of Light, written for and dedicated to the Canadian-American flute virtuoso Conor Nelson, is a variation set loosely based on an elegiac melody, for those we have lost, which returns in ritornello fashion during the course of this 15-minute work. The title is a phrase from the poet Michael Ondaatje, whose poetry not infrequently sets the stage for my music. Following the initial statement of this elegy for flute alone, and between returns of the theme in various guises, the music is by turns floating, soaring, cascading, airy and thunderous. After the final, expansive return of the elegy led by the piano, the music cascades toward the end when the flute ultimately disappears like a ghost.*
For me, this piece feels like memory itself. The recurring elegiac theme does not simply repeat — it returns altered, refracted, illuminated from different angles. The flute’s disappearance at the end is not dramatic; it is almost inevitable — like light fading at dusk.
Technically, the work is demanding and expansive, requiring complete emotional commitment. But beneath its complexity lies something deeply human: the persistence of remembrance. Even as sound dissolves, something remains — much like the wave that returns to the ocean earlier in the program. - Antonina
Composer: Pedro Osuna (b. 1997)
Spanish-born composer Pedro Osuna is an internationally active composer of film, television, and concert music based in Los Angeles. A graduate of Berklee College of Music (summa cum laude), his work bridges cinematic storytelling and concert expression, blending Spanish melodic sensibility with contemporary harmonic depth.
His score for the Amazon Prime series Cada Minuto Cuenta received a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Music for Visual Media, marking a significant milestone in his career. I had the privilege of contributing to this project as a flutist — a collaboration that remains deeply meaningful to me.
I first met Pedro at Berklee during a collaborative student project, and over time that encounter evolved into a sustained artistic partnership and friendship.
Piece: Poema arr. for flute and piano
Originally written for violin and string orchestra, Poema reflects Osuna’s gift for lyrical melody and connection to Spanish musical heritage. With the composer’s permission, I arranged the work for flute, drawn to its vocal quality and expressive clarity.
Performing Pedro’s concert music carries a deeply personal resonance. His harmonic language and melodic sensibility are inseparable from his Spanish heritage and upbringing, and each time I play his music, I am transported to my own formative memories in Spain. There is a particular warmth — a softness of light, a richness of language, a vibrancy of color — that feels unmistakably southern and sun-kissed.
Choosing to build my life in California was, in many ways, connected to that longing. Here, I found a landscape that gently echoes that warmth — culturally layered, multilingual, luminous. After living in the Northeast, where I often felt that warmth was missing, Pedro’s music continues to feel like an emotional return: familiar, expansive, and quietly restorative.
In Poema, that warmth becomes sound — singing, unfolding, and carrying with it both memory and belonging.
