Free and open to the public!
Social Time: ~7:15PM PST / Presentation begins: 7:30PM PST
Presenter: Steven P. James
Title : I will present my recent project : composing and performing my new concerto,"Halaqaik," for piano and chamber ensemble. This piece was inspired by Cape Perpetua and was named after the ancient Alsea word for that location, "Uncovered Place" - one of the few vocabulary fragments left of the extinct Alsea tribe. 'Halaqaik' utilizes a microtonal harmonic language based on a 24-EDO (quarter-tone chromatic scale), exploring a variety of spectralist harmonies and haunting multiphonics, as well as capturing the brutal rhythmic energy of the perpetual winds and tides beating on the Cape. In this presentation, I will share a bit of commentary on my process for developing this piece's unique colors and harmonies, as well as a work for string duo that also explores the 24-EDO quarter-tone scale, and how this methods are being refined further for large ensemble in my upcoming orchestral project with Fear No Music's "Young Composer's Concert" in August 2026.
Bio: Steven James (2000 - ) is a composer and pianist from Portland, Oregon, and now based in
Baltimore, Maryland. As a composer, Steven’s work has been performed or commissioned in the United States and Canada, including the SonoKlect Series Music Festival, the Galiano Island Chamber Music Society and UBC Music in British Columbia, the UGA New Music Festival, the University of Oregon keyboard department, the Oregon Bach Festival Composer’s Symposium, The Bridge Music Collective, the Baltimore Composer’s Forum, the College Music Society MidAtlantic Conference, Off the Dock Chamber Festival, Fear No Music, and Cascadia Composers, for whom Steven is an active board member, concert curator, and administrator.
Steven holds two degrees from the University of Oregon in piano performance, and is currently finishing a Master’s degree in Composition at the Peabody Institute.
An educator as well as a composer/performer, Steven was selected as a Peabody Interplay artist, teaching lectures and mentoring undergraduate composers at the University of Maryland
Baltimore County campus. He is also an accompanist for Baltimore Symphony’s OrchKids
program, and has worked with Cascadia Composer’s “In Good Hands” project, which pairs
together student performers and regional composers. When not pursuing any of these artistic,
Steven enjoys exploring nature, writing poems and fantasy, rooting for the Oregon
Ducks, and running a homebrew D&D campaign. All these hobbies serve to provide inspiration for his musical composition.