With special thanks to the amazing musicians who played and premiered my compostions in 2025. Photos: Saba Yousefi (violin) and Dobrochna Zubek (cello) A Stack of Human Dilemmas, Alison Yun-Fei Jiang (piano) Afterthoughts(World Premiere of No.1 Afterthought), Stephen Altoft (19-division trumpet) Kerata for Straton (World Premiere) and Lisa Bost-Sandberg (microtonal C Flute) Lost Fragments (World Premiere of first Lost Fragment). Some statistics from 2025…75% of my works played in 2025 were microtonal!
Lost Fragments refers to the missing parts of the sculptures located in the Antike am Königsplatz museum in Munich housing a set of marble sculptures originally from the Temple of Aphaia (circa 500 BCE) on the island of Aegina in Greece. Lost Fragments reflects upon ancient Greek philosophy and culture.
A Stack of Human Dilemmas for violin and cello by Coreen Morsink with art by Judith Morsink Performed by Saba Yousefi, violin and Dobrochna Zubek, cello
I) contemporaneous dilemmas web myriad
II) holding the weight of the world
III) mound
May 16, 2025 at the Arts and Letters Club, Toronto, Canada as part of the Women. Art, Resilience. Concert Series
My composition A Stack of Human Dilemmas for violin and cello will be part of the Women, Art, Resilience concert series in Toronto and Aurora.
Art design by Homa Eskandoari @_homaessk
About the event
Woman, Art, Resilience
The Woman Art Resilience Collective invites you to an inspiring concert celebrating the voices of women composers. This event explores how artistic expression sparks connection cultivates empathy and inspires social change.
Join us to hear works by the winning composers of our Call for Scores: Judy Specht (Canada) Rachel DeVore Fogarty (USA) Melissa D’Albora (USA) Coreen Morsink (Greece/Canada) Niyayesh Bagheri (USA) Yike Zhang (China/Canada) and Clara Shandler (Canada). The program will also feature works by Iranian-Canadian composers Homa Samiei Afarin Mansouri and Parisa Sabet.
Performers: Asal Iranmher (piano) Dobrochna Zubek (cello) Sahar Azar (Clarinet) Anoush Tabai (clarinet) Bahar Harandi (vocal) Alheli Pimienta (flute) Saba Yousefi (violin) and Kristine Dandavino (vocal)
With many thanks to Alison Yun-Fei Jiang to whom my new piano composition Afterthoughts is dedicated. Here is the clip from her concert featuring the first Afterthought, premiered on May 16th at the CMC in Toronto. From the live-stream:
With thanks to Stephen Altoft in his collaboration in my new work for 19-divsion microtonal trumpet called Kerata for Straton.
Here is Stephen Altoft’s workshop recording and below is the livestream from the World Premiere of the work at the Microtonal/Hyperchromatic Conference April 14-15 2025 at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Hyperchromatic Music Festival
Kerata for Straton with an introduction by Stephen Altoft starts at approximately 11 minutes into the video.
14th/ 15th April, 2025, Goldsmiths University, London, UK.
Presenters to include: Stephen Altoft, The Microtonal Trumpet/ Flugelhorn, Microtonal Projects, Pedro Finisterra, Lumatone, Royal College of Music, Joseph Gusmano, Microtonal Guitar and Banjo, Goldsmiths University, Lore Amenabar Larrañaga, Quarter-tone Accordion, Yehudi Menuhin School and Carla Rees (microtonal flute)j.
This event will bring together composers, performers, and lecturers from around the world to explore systems of music which use a much wider pallet of notes than those found in 12-note chromatic music. Lecturers and students from Goldsmiths University, Royal Academy of Music, Royal College of Music, Waldkirch Musikschule, Yehudi Menuhin School, and De Montfort University will present their unique approaches to hyperchromatic music.
Attendees will have the opportunity to attend two days of lectures designed to provide them with practical and theoretical tools for approaching these new tonal horizons. Following each lecture, all are invited to attend evening concerts in which these tools are put to use. All events are free to attend and are held at Goldsmiths University. Lectures will run from 12-2pm at Room LG01 in the Professor Stuart Hall Building and Concerts will run from 5-7pm at the Council Chamber, Deptford Town Hall on April 14th and 15th.
With thanks to the Unanimes! competition and the AFO. I was thrilled to hear my composition for chamber orchestra, Eos and Tithonus played by the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse conducted brilliantly by Bruno Mantovani at the Auditorium Saint Pierre des Cuisines, Toulouse, France. Bravo to my colleagues Caterina Di Cecca, Johanna Ruotsalain, Song-Aa Park and Lisa Chevalier for their amazing compositions. The prizes are listed below! The concert will be broadcast October 2nd on France Musique on the programme “Le concert du soir” 20.00hr https://www.radiofrance.fr/francemusique/podcasts/le-concert-du-soir/finales-du-concours-unanimes-et-du-concours-prix-elan-2024-6161552
Prix UNANIMES ! Catégorie Orchestre Symphonique : Sa-Ii (Gap of the Time), Song Aa Park Prix UNANIMES ! Catégorie Orchestre de Chambre : Magic Simon, Johanna Ruotsalainen Prix du public : Réveil à l’aube d’une ville, Lisa Chevalier Prix des musiciens de l’Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse : Réveil à l’aube d’une ville, Lisa Chevalier
Eos and Tithonus is a composition I wrote based on the myth of the goddess of the dawn, Eos who fell in love with the musician Tithonus. She asked that he could have eternal life but forgot to ask for him to have eternal youth so he slowly withered away physically. He was turned into a cicada at some point although it’s not very clear whether Eos did this or Zeus. The work attempts to depict the eternal sound of the Greek cicadas in the summer,
This piece will be premiered September 13th 2024 in Toulouse, France by l’Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse conducted by Bruno Mantovani and broadcast on France Musique October 2nd as part of the Unanimes! composition competition.
The safron colour of the sky in Greece as depicted in the Iliad in reference to Eos, the goddess of the dawn.
Selected parts of my score and a photo of an ancient Greek vase showing a depiction of Eos and Tithonus (British Museum, London, photo from the Theoi Project website)
Some Greek and Canadian Cicadas and the sunrise in Andros, Greece
With thanks to Paco Varoch to whom my composition Transformations in Flight for piccolo is dedicated, for premiering this work in Valencia, Spain and for recording these videos! For more playing by Paco Varoch, please see the links below. The score will be through Tetractys Publishing in the near future. https://www.tetractys.co.uk/section726143_275293.html
With thanks to Kennth Hesketh for his quotation and commentary on my composition Andromache for Quater tone Alto flute in his chapter in The Cambridge Companion to Composition. A fragment of the article is in the photo collage below and the link to the book is below.
Hesketh K. Ex Uno Plures: Strategies of Linear Expansion. In: Young T, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Composition. Cambridge Companions to Music. Cambridge University Press; 2024:42-61.
coreenmorsink 