While at the American Academy, I will be working primarily on three large orchestral works and a modern ballet. I plan to begin my compositional journey in Rome by finishing a percussion quartet for the Time Travelers. I will follow this by finishing a ballet for choreographer Benjamin Millepied, founder of LA Dance Project and director of Paris Opera Ballet, to be premiered in 2015. Beginning in the fall, I will compose a steel pan concerto, which will be premiered by steel pan virtuoso Liam Teague and the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in May 2015. Additionally, I will write a triple-concerto for the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, featuring Olympic ping-pong players, the percussionist David Cossin, and the violinist Elizabeth Zelster, to be premiered in Shanghai in July 2015. I will also be writing my first nonconcerto orchestral work for the American Composers Orchestra, to be premiered in New York during the 2015–16 season.

In addition to the orchestral works, I will begin outlining two chamber pieces that will be premiered in late 2015: a piano quintet for the Friction String Quartet and the pianist Jenny Q. Chai; and a multidisciplinary chamber work in collaboration with the percussionist Scott Christian and the Architecture Department at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.