π(pi) – Echoes of the Unseen Thread (2025) for Chamber ensemble
PROGRAM NOTE
π (pi) – Echoes of the Unseen Thread is a meditation on emotional recursion — the feeling of returning again and again to a fragile thread of shared moments, each time familiar yet subtly changed. Like the infinite digits of π, these memories spiral without pattern, forming an emotional dialogue that circles without resolution.
The piece draws on a numeric motif derived from the digits of π (3.14159), mapped to the pitch set D♯–C♯–E–C♯–F–A. These notes serve as the musical DNA of the work, reappearing in different forms and permutations across the ensemble — not as literal repetitions, but as emotional echoes.
Blurring lines between jazz-inspired rhythm, modern classical sonorities, and free improvisation, π explores the ache of the almost: almost arriving, almost connecting, almost being understood. The ensemble weaves a delicate balance of stillness and chaos, order and unpredictability, reflecting the emotional logic of a relationship that keeps returning yet never quite settles.
What begins as a whisper — single piano tracing the fragile line — builds slowly into a complex, multi-voiced conversation. Tensions emerge, dissolve, and reappear. Nothing is resolved, yet everything transforms.
This is music that breathes in paradox: beauty and pain, memory and motion, seen and unseen.
DURATION: ca. 5’20’’
PERFORMANCE
Premiere: July 25, 2025
Occasion: Stanford Recording Arts Workshop, CCRMA (Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics), Stanford University, California
Music by: Nahyun Kim (Claire)
Engineered by: Stanford Recording Arts Workshop
Mixed & Mastered by: Nahyun Kim (Claire) & the 2025 Stanford Recording Arts Workshop
Conductor: Nahyun Kim (Claire)
Performers:
Voice: Chad Dyer, Riley Max
Piano: Levi Randolph, Nahyun Kim (Claire)
Alto Saxophone: Cory Cullinan
Cello: Yu-Chien Huang (Jimmy)
Bass: Jacob Moore
Percussion: Riley Max, Sydney Cullinan, Ishir Ayyagari
Drums: Nati Grinkrug
π (pi) – Echoes of the Unseen Thread is a meditation on emotional recursion — the feeling of returning again and again to a fragile thread of shared moments, each time familiar yet subtly changed. Like the infinite digits of π, these memories spiral without pattern, forming an emotional dialogue that circles without resolution.
The piece draws on a numeric motif derived from the digits of π (3.14159), mapped to the pitch set D♯–C♯–E–C♯–F–A. These notes serve as the musical DNA of the work, reappearing in different forms and permutations across the ensemble — not as literal repetitions, but as emotional echoes.
Blurring lines between jazz-inspired rhythm, modern classical sonorities, and free improvisation, π explores the ache of the almost: almost arriving, almost connecting, almost being understood. The ensemble weaves a delicate balance of stillness and chaos, order and unpredictability, reflecting the emotional logic of a relationship that keeps returning yet never quite settles.
What begins as a whisper — single piano tracing the fragile line — builds slowly into a complex, multi-voiced conversation. Tensions emerge, dissolve, and reappear. Nothing is resolved, yet everything transforms.
This is music that breathes in paradox: beauty and pain, memory and motion, seen and unseen.
DURATION: ca. 5’20’’
PERFORMANCE
Premiere: July 25, 2025
Occasion: Stanford Recording Arts Workshop, CCRMA (Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics), Stanford University, California
Music by: Nahyun Kim (Claire)
Engineered by: Stanford Recording Arts Workshop
Mixed & Mastered by: Nahyun Kim (Claire) & the 2025 Stanford Recording Arts Workshop
Conductor: Nahyun Kim (Claire)
Performers:
Voice: Chad Dyer, Riley Max
Piano: Levi Randolph, Nahyun Kim (Claire)
Alto Saxophone: Cory Cullinan
Cello: Yu-Chien Huang (Jimmy)
Bass: Jacob Moore
Percussion: Riley Max, Sydney Cullinan, Ishir Ayyagari
Drums: Nati Grinkrug
