Coping Cadences takes its inspiration from the dark comedy series Beef. In the show, two strangers cross paths in a road-rage incident, and what should have been a forgettable moment spirals into an obsession that takes over both of their lives. Underneath the chaos, the story is really about how differently people cope with anger, loneliness, and pressure. Some of us lash out. Some of us live double lives. Some of us bottle everything up, chase something we can never quite reach, or hold on to a fragile balance. And sometimes, after all of it, we find our way to each other.

Each of these ways of coping suggested a musical style to me, and they became the six movements of the piece: contemporary, romantic, jazz/blues, minimalist, classical, and fusion. Writing across genres has always been central to my voice. Here, that eclecticism becomes the subject itself, with different musical languages standing in for different ways of being human.

The form comes from the Baroque concerto grosso, in which a small group of soloists (the concertino) plays with and against the full orchestra. What draws me to this form is the many relationships it makes possible. The six soloists can act as a chamber ensemble of their own, or any one of them can break away to speak alone. They can pair off, compete, or join forces as a group against the orchestra, and the orchestra can answer them, challenge them, or draw them back into its sound. These shifting alliances felt like a natural way to tell a story about conflict, isolation, and connection, and they let me celebrate the orchestra’s own principal players as the protagonists.

Coping Cadences was commissioned by the Santa Rosa Symphony and its Artistic and Music Director Francesco Lecce-Chong, who premiered it in March 2026, with a consortium of orchestras including the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Chattanooga Symphony & Opera, Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra, and Washington-Idaho Symphony.