Cyclic

Cyclic uses recording and playback to examine tropes about the seasons, memory, and different philosophies about time. By superimposing the past and present, the quartet draws attention to the ways the past materially and linearly affects the present, but it is still cycling through the same seasons, representing a somewhat circular view of time. During the composition process, I was thinking about the difficulties many have with grief as they approach the anniversary of an event, as well as the anxiety of noticing how the seasons themselves have changed in living memory due to climate change - however, Cyclic always ends with a raucous, joyful spring, with all its connotations of hope, new life, and rebirth as we move forward into the unknown.

Cyclic was commissioned by the Jasmine Quartet as part of their commissioning and recording project, JOYRIDE. They premiered it at Folklore Hoxton, London, in April 2026.

The Jasmine Quartet was founded in 2024 by violinists Mira Steenbrugge and Amber Correa, violist Becca Marr, and cellist Ezra Escobar, with the aim to recontextualise and develop the string quartet practice beyond the classical tradition. A shared passion for repertoire by new and underrepresented composers brought them together at the Royal College of Music, and the quartet is committed to expanding the reach of classical music beyond traditional demographics through repertoire that reaches across genres and cultural boundaries.