Score Video: Notebook for Piano Vol. 1 performed by Gabriel Stossel
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by Gabriel Stossel and Liam Ross Gibson
I - Reverie: Sunlight on Waves
II - Basalt
III - Alluvial
IV - Monotropeae
V - Říjnový les
This set of miniatures draws inspiration from the natural world, as well as music and musicians which have had an impact on me. There is no overarching scheme uniting them, and though they are numbered below, they can be played in any order and independently from one another.
I - Reverie: Sunlight on Waves Summer afternoons by the Salish Sea can take on a dreamlike atmosphere, with the heat and ever-shifting webs of reflected sunlight on the waves inducing a trance in which time seems to stand still.
II - Basalt Much of Vancouver Island is formed of volcanic basalt that erupted under the ocean during the late Triassic some 200 million years ago. Subsequent forces of glaciation, wind, rain, and waves have carved this igneous rock into a dizzying variety of forms.
III - Alluvial I am fascinated by hydrology, and the water cycle is a recurring theme in my work. This piece is in part an hommage to the Armenian pianist and composer Tigran Hamasyan.
IV - Monotropeae Monotropeae is a tribe of flowering plants which are distinguished by a reliance on parasitism of mycorrhizal networks rather than photosynthesis. This lack of chlorophyll means that, instead of green, Monotropes are often a ghostly white, or varying shades of yellow, orange, red, pink, and purple. Musically, this piece is an hommage to the great jazz pianist Brad Mehldau.
V - Říjnový les Czech for October forest, Říjnový les is dedicated to my former piano teacher, Eva Solar-Kinderman. Her teaching had a profound impact on me not just as a pianist, but on my overall thinking about music. Musically, the piece is an hommage to Czech composer Leoš Janáček.
Piper (Recordings from Home) by THIRTYMINUTES and Marla Hlady
June 30th, 2025
Video with sound, 6:07 duration, 2025
In Piper (Recordings from Home), we explore the capabilities of a new instrument programmed to play a shared collection of recordings captured around each of our homes.
A collaboration with artist Marla Hlady, Piper (Recordings from Home) began with a shared interest in found sounds and field recordings. From our respective cities — Marla in Toronto, Liam in Nanaimo (both Canada), Aliayta in London, and Paul in Cambridge (both UK) — we gathered small recordings: incidental sounds, passing noise, textures of our environments.
Marla then designed and built Piper, a handheld instrument with sixteen buttons, internal speakers, and no fixed rules. Without a clear front or back, and with no “correct” way to hold or play it, the instrument offered a tactile, playful means of exploring our database of sounds.
Guided by a graphic score, we each recorded our parts remotely, each with our own copy of Piper. These recordings — video and audio — are stitched together into a single performance that collapses the distances between us. Time becomes porous. Disembodied sounds are recontextualized.
As such, Piper is a vessel for shared experience, a point of contact, and a way of reaching across space. Piper (Recordings from Home) is less a composition than a confluence — a composite moment made from many.
Performed by THIRTYMINUTES and Marla Hlady Instruments by Marla Hlady
Sound and video by THIRTYMINUTES
Additional video editing and consulting by Peppercorn Imagine Studio
Audio mastering by Pouya Hamidi
I wasn’t ready to leave this world behind by THIRTYMINUTES premieres online
May 12th, 2025
Video with sound, 5:53 duration, 2025
“I wasn’t ready to leave this world behind, so I continued to push it in an unknowable direction. Let’s see where we go.” Posted in March 2024, Aliayta put to words the bittersweet excitement we feel when our ideas briefly flicker in sync.
I Wasn’t Ready to Leave This World Behind emerged from a string of short works from early 2024 that we felt warranted further exploration. Grounded by simple yet evocative visual themes (the gate, the oculus), the piece hints at beginnings and endings, of time-dissolving, of place-transcending. Materially, it reflects the diversity found within our weekly practice, revealing traces of coding output, audio-reactive animations, low-fi video clips, heavily processed found-footage, acoustic violin, field recordings, and synthesis. Crumpled together and compressed into a deep intake of breath, the work holds on to that moment, stretching out that flicker. Sound and video by THIRTYMINUTES.
Continental Divide for orchestra to premiere February 28th 2025 at the Montreal/New Musics Festival
February 28th, 2025 – 19:30 EST
Maison symphonique de Montréal 1600, rue Saint-Urbain – H2X 0S1
Continental Divide - for orchestra; commissioned by the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec
the McGill Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Alexis Hauser
Part of the 12th edition of the Montreal/New Musics Festival, this concert pays hommage to the relationship between the films of Stanley Kubrick and the music of György Ligeti.
Elsa Barozzi to premiere Windswept and Overgrown Friday September 20th 2024
September 20th, 2024 – 19:30 EST
Centre de musique canadienne au Québec, 2150 Crescent St, Montreal, Quebec H3G 2B8
Windswept and Overgrown - for solo violin
Elsa Barozzi
rhythm is image new music initiative presents music for performer alone
join us for a concert of solo works by by Kaija Saariaho, Liza Lim, Pierre Jodlowski, Liam Ross Gibson, Hamid-Reza Khalatbari, and Hannah A Barnes.
Centre de musique canadienne au Québec, 2150 Crescent St, Montreal
Doors at 7, concert @ 7:30
Suggested donation: $10-20
Ensemble Éclat to premiere Sandstone Lacunae Tuesday March 19th 2024
March 19th, 2024 – 19:30 EST
Tanna Schulich Hall, 527 Sherbrooke St W, Montreal, Quebec
Sandstone Lacuane - for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, and cello
Ensemble Éclat
Ensemble Éclat will premiere four new works by Kalen Smith, Yulin Yan, Liam Ross Gibson, and Louis-Michel Tougas.
Ghost Story by THIRTYMINUTES and Luke Hathaway is now live
September 11th, 2023
Music/experimental film/poetry
"A man encounters a ghost of himself, walking down a road in rural New Brunswick; a
person in a studio opens a box; hands flip the pages of Bach’s Chaconne....
Who are these people? How are they connected?
Our Ghost Story asks you to entertain the radical interpenetration of identities that
happens around crisis, when in addition to being characters in one another’s dramas we
become one another in astonishing ways."
Beginning D.Mus. in Composition at McGill University
June 28th, 2023
I am extremely happy to announce that I will be pursuing doctoral studies in composition at McGill’s Schulich School of Music starting fall 2023. I’m looking forward to collaborating with some amazing musicians in Montreal and experience the world-class music scene.
Debut album as Aquifolium
March 8th, 2023
My debut album of electronic music under the name Aquifolium is now available on Bandcamp.
Genetic Drift for two violins to be premiered in London, UK
January 27th, 2022 – 19:00 GMT
Genetic Drift
Aliayta Foon-Dancoes and Emily Earl - violin
Bermondsey Project Space, London UK
Violinists Aliayta Foon-Dancoes and Emily Earl present an evening of new classical music including world premiers of works by young UK-based composers such as Robert Laidlow, Louise Drewett, Aliayta Foon-Dancoes and Geoffrey King.
Karmutsen Formation to premiere at SALT New Music Festival 2022 in Victoria BC
January 8th, 2022 – 7:00 PM PT
Karmutsen Formation
Tsilumos Ensemble
SALT New Music Festival
In person: Phillip T. Young Recital Hall, Victoria BC; streaming online
The Tsilumos Ensemble performs my piece Karmutsen Formation (for bass clarinet, soprano sax, baritone sax, percussion, and piano) alongside works by Wolf Edwards, Thomas Nicholson, Nolan Krell, and Maria Eduarda Mendes Martins.
