Inspired by a 90-minute video essay on ghost trains in the Thomas the Tank Engine cinematic universe, Phantom Engines imagines the abandoned boxcars and historic steam engines scattered across New Mexico's Chama River Valley as haunted and possessed; using the textures and techniques from the chamber wind ensemble to sonically simulate the sounds of these pieces of train anatomy lifting up from their decrepitude and careening down the rail towards god knows what.
Phantom Engines was premiered by the Newfound Chamber Wind Ensemble at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA on June 16, 2026 as a part of the Tidewater Composition Program.
