My PIANO TRIO was the first work I wrote after returning to college in 1991 and beginning my studies with Chinary Ung.  As such, it is rather a transitional work, as I was trying some new ideas.  I had felt my music was too predictable and needed some creative spice.  This piece was an attempt to stretch what I was doing before in a new direction.

The first movement is a rather symmetrical presentation of material with an alternately warm and cold feel; sometimes austere, sometimes luxurious, sometimes intense, sometimes wistful.  It features one of the most intense climaxes of any piece I have written, but it immediately releases to an almost music-box-like piano solo.

The second movement is a spirited contrapuntal dance.  It follows a sonata-like plan with not much of a recapitulation and large development and coda sections.  Both movements are loosely based on material drawn from tetrachords.

Though I was trying out some different ideas, I am still primarily taking a purely musical approach and not bringing extra-musical concepts into my music on purpose.  Though the material suggests different things to me, it primarily shows a composer who is trying to deal with some unrest.