Batture Contemporary 2026 Concert #5

I wrote this piece as an undergraduate student, for my friend Darren Knox. This was before the death of another dear friend, Jonas Fricke. And then, a few months ago the passing of my little brother, Gunner, a loss unlike anything I’ve experienced. So this piece is for them.

Cory Diane is a composer, performer, researcher, scholar, multi-instrumentalist, creative technologist and resident of planet Earth.

Buzzards is an exploration of how vultures move, their flight patterns, and the reasons for both. Vultures ride warm air currents to gain altitude, and in doing so, their path through the air creates a spiral shape. This piece begins with a visceral scene meant to depict a vulture scavenging for carrion, and it is followed by settings portraying the vulture’s ascent in search of more, often structured around their spiraling flight paths. It is meant to be all-at-once macabre, unnerving, unsettling, yet still soaring above it all with a sense of inevitability. Inevitably not only in their gradual ascension, but also in the inevitability of death which sustains them.

K. Tiser Blankenship, Ty for short, is a composer and student from West Monroe, Louisiana. At the moment, much of Ty’s work is centered around creating musical narratives about subjects ranging from natural phenomena to personal anecdotes. His music has been awarded in competitions such as the Southeastern Composers’ League’s Arnold Salop Memorial Competition and the Constantinides New Music Ensemble Call for Scores. He graduated from the University of Louisiana at Monroe with a Bachelor’s degree in Music and is pursuing a Master’s in Music Composition at Louisiana State University.

Hambre Insaciable in English translates to insatiable hunger. This piece was written for a friend of mine to show off his technique. He told me he wanted something impressive and liked the Latin/salsa feel, so I took those two ideas and ran with them. It was supposed to be a solo clarinet, but as I started writing, adding percussion just made sense. I hope you enjoy Hambre Insaciable.

I’m Lewis, a classical saxophonist and composer with a deep love for storytelling through music. I was born in Mississippi and later moved to Louisiana, where my passion for music really took root. I recently graduated from Dutchtown High School, where I was actively involved in the music program and developed my skills as both a performer and a composer. When I compose, I focus on creating music that feels personal and expressive, yet accessible to performers. Whether I’m writing for saxophone, chamber groups, or large ensembles, I aim to tell stories that resonate with listeners and give performers space to connect with the music. I’m always exploring new ideas, sounds, and techniques to grow as a composer and push the boundaries of my creativity. I have recently finished working with the Southeastern Theater Department, writing music for our show, The Appliance Department, as well.

Mayflies have a unique and ephemeral life cycle characterized by a brief adult stage and an aquatic juvenile phase. Their life begins as eggs laid in freshwater, which hatch into nymphs. These nymphs live underwater for several months to a few years, depending on the species, undergoing multiple molts as they grow.

The final molt brings them to the subimago stage—a winged but sexually immature form—unique among insects. Soon after, they molt again into the imago (adult) stage. This adult phase is strikingly short-lived, often lasting just a few hours to a couple of days, during which they do not eat and exist solely to reproduce. This fleeting adult life gives mayflies their name and symbolizes the ephemeral nature of existence.

Mature females live for less than five minutes in their last stage. Male adults congregate in swarms. After mating, the females lay between 400 and three thousand eggs often dropped onto the surface of the water, but they sink to the bottom taking on many forms until they mature. Adult females find water through the polarization of reflected light, and many believe the life cycle of a mayfly represents a link between heaven and earth, “a cosmic resonance between the sacred and profane, celestial and terrestrial, micro and macro.”

Composer Mara Gibson, originally from Charlottesville, VA, graduated from Bennington College, and completed her Ph.D. at SUNY Buffalo. She has received grants and honors from the American Composer’s Forum, the Banff Center, Meet the Composer, the National Endowment for the Arts, the International Bass Society, ASCAP, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the MacDowell Colony, Yale University and the Recording Academy of the US. Internationally renowned ensembles and soloists perform her music throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Asia, and Europe. Dr. Gibson has had performances of her works at prestigious festivals and universities around the country and the world and she currently leads the composition program at Louisiana State University as the McMullan Distinguished Professor.

During a trip to Varanasi in December 2022, I discovered this title in a book by Geoff Dyer: a partial description of the city in which I found myself:

Late afternoon. Flames in sunlight, by the river. Slow Smoke. People drifting through the smoke, moving in sunlight.

Strolling on the ghats, or from a wooden boat, on sees hazy shapes, wrapped in a mix of fog and smokes that occasionally thins to reveal a glimpse of a giant living fresco along the quays of the Ganges.

Slow Smoke was inspired by the Hindustani tradition, and the sonority of the harmonium in particular, here evoked by the clarinet which plays modal figures from start to finish: a soloistic melody, almost improvisatory, that tries to explore the multiple possible pathways of a single persistent mode. The quartet grounds it with a drone, often on (retuned) open strings, that also wanders between four pivot notes (G – F – D – C#), which in turn provoke transpositions and alterations. Anchored in this modal vocabulary, the piece unfurls steadily, an Alap that builds itself at a slow and steady pace.

Slow Smoke was commisioned by Grand Théâtre de Provence – Festival Nouveaux Horizons – Aix-en-Provence, with support from the Fondation Francis et Mica Salabert. It was premiered on 10 November 2023 in Aix-en-Provence.

Christopher Trapani earned a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard, then spent most of his twenties overseas: a year in London, working on a Master’s degree at the Royal College of Music; a year in Istanbul, studying microtonality in Ottoman music on a Fulbright grant; and seven years in Paris, where he studied with Philippe Leroux and worked at IRCAM. Christopher earned a doctorate in 2017 from Columbia University in New York City. He is currently Assistant Professor of Electronic Music and Digital Media at Louisiana State University. Recent commissions have come from Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, and Radio France, and his works have been heard at Carnegie Hall, Southbank Centre, Wiener Konzerthaus, Ravenna Festival, and Wigmore Hall. Christopher is a Guggenheim Fellow (2019) and a winner of the Rome Prize (2016). He has held fellowships at Akademie Schloss Solitude, Camargo Foundation, and the Bogliasco Foundation. Christopher is the winner of the 2007 Gaudeamus Prize, and has been awarded commissions from the Koussevitzky Foundation, the Fromm Foundation, the Ernst von Siemens Foundation, and Chamber Music America. Waterlines, his debut portrait CD was released on New Focus Recordings in 2018, followed by Horizontal Drift in 2022 and Noise Uprising in 2024. Christopher splits his time between New Orleans and his European base in Palermo, Sicily. For more information, please visit: www.christophertrapani.com

String Quartet no. 1 in C Neapolitan Major: Djavaniando Meshuggah and Reich is a work that explores the idea of rhythmic modeling through the interaction of three distinct musical worlds: the minimalism of Steve Reich, the progressive metal of the band Meshuggah, and the Brazilian popular music of Djavan. Structured in an ABA’ form, the piece articulates contrasts and continuities through different scalar centers — with the outer sections based on the C Neapolitan major scale and the central section on F — as well as through a system of metric modulations designed to ensure smooth transitions between tempos. Throughout the work, contrasting rhythmic layers create grouping dissonances, combining irregular cyclic patterns — derived from a model of 17 rotated attacks — with more stable underlying metric structures. The central section further introduces the influence of the Brazilian Igexá rhythm, associated with isorhythmic procedures and canonic techniques, expanding the dialogue between tradition and experimentation. The result is a musical language that integrates structural rigor and rhythmic vitality, articulating diverse references in the pursuit of a cohesive yet expressive discourse.

Filipe de Matos Rocha is a Brazilian composer, educator, researcher, and music producer. He has a strong interest in African-American Music, Music Theory, and the connections between Music and Mathematics. His compositions address issues related to Brazilian black culture, religious identity, and otherness. Filipe holds a Ph.D. in Composition from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) as a CAPES scholarship recipient. He is currently pursuing his second Ph.D. while serving as a Teaching Assistant at Louisiana State University (LSU), where he was a visiting researcher from 2023 to 2025. He earned both his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Music Composition from UFRJ and also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO). His music has been performed both in Brazil and internationally by soloists, ensembles, and orchestras such as the Symphony Orchestra of UFRJ’s School of Music. Filipe is actively involved in promoting contemporary music both as a composer and as a researcher. He has contributed to international conferences, where he has presented his academic work, such as the 45th International Council for Traditions of Music – ICTM (Bangkok, Thailand) in 2019, and the Interdisciplinary Approaches to Musical Time by Música Analítica at the University of Coimbra in 2023 (Portugal). website: https://www.filipedematosrocha.com/

Portraits for Brass Quintet is a four-movement work that utilizes the many possibilities of the brass instruments including often harsh or brash textures. Each movement is abstractly programmatic with guiding yet vague titles that lead the listener on their own personalized journey.

Ben Robichaux (b.1991) is a dedicated composer who aims to write accessible music that musicians and non-musicians alike can enjoy. As a two-time recipient of the James E. Croft Grant for Young and Emerging Wind Band Composers, his works for band have received high praise and recognition. He was selected as a participant in the National Band Association Young Composers and Conductors Mentor Project, which included a recording and performance with the United States Air Force Band in Washington, D.C. His work As the Lights Go Out for wind ensemble and electronics earned him an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award in 2021, and his middle school band piece Gregorian Fantasy was awarded honorable mention in the First Annual Barbara Buehlman Composition Competition. His chamber works have been featured at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, the International Saxophone Symposium, the National Gallery of Art, the Rapido! Composition Competition (as a two-time national finalist), the Alba International Music Festival, the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, the Batture Contemporary Music Festival, New Music on the Bayou, the SEAMUS National Conference, the Electronic Music Midwest Festival, the Atlantic Music Festival, and the Electrobrass II Conference among others. He received a Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition and a Master’s of Music in Composition from the University of Georgia where he studied with Natalie Williams, Leonard V. Ball, Peter Van Zandt Lane, Adrian Childs, and Emily Koh. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Instrumental Music Education from Nicholls State University.

with:
Byron Asher – woodwinds
Endurance Badejo – clarinets
Amelia Clingman – viola
Cory Diane – vocals
Sam Kohler – piano
Ji Weon Ryu – flutes

• Executive Director – Mendel Lee
• Executive Team – Kari Besharse (founder), Philip Schuessler (co-founder), Stephen Montalvo (Assistant Director)
• Artistic Directors
  • Batture Contemporary – Mendel Lee
  • Versipel Collective – Kari Besharse, Philip Schuessler
  • nF Residency Series – Maxwell Dulaney, Sixto Franco
• Production Director – Rick Snow
• Communications Director – Cari Sands
• Communications Specialists – Kevin Mah, Drew Farrar
• Board of Directors – Kari Besharse (president), Philip Schuessler (vice-president), Megan Ihnen (secretary), Jeff Albert, Rick Snow

Batture Contemporary was created and is run by Versipel New Music. The festival is supported in part by:

• a grant from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council, as administered by Arts New Orleans. Funding has also been provided by the National Endowment of the Arts.
• a grant from the New Orleans Tourism and Cultural Fund

Batture Contemporary and Versipel New Music would like to give our heartfelt thanks to the following outside people who have offered their time and resources to make this festival possible: