Title: Abandoned
Commission: 2019
Completed: 2022
Instrumentation: flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, and piano
Premiere Location: May 9, 2022 at Herbst Theatre, San Francisco 
Premiere Ensemble: Earplay
Notes:

Swedish composer Mika Pelo writes music for soloists, chamber ensembles, and orchestras, with or without electronics. He holds a doctorate in composition from Columbia University and is associate professor of composition at UC Davis. His principal composition teachers include Tristan Murail and Bent Sørensen. Pelo is inspired by the French so-called spectral composers and Scandinavian lyricism and describes his method of composition as “controlled dreaming.” The Strad magazine writes that Pelo’s music “fashions a fascinating mosaic of sonorities,” and the Irish Times writes that Pelo’s music is built by “gestures that were once the province of the avant-garde . . . here pliably exploited by a sensibility that sounded decidedly romantic.” His music is published by Edition Peters, Germany.