“Vortex Fields” is a musical work for electronically augmented solo trumpet, written in conversation with professor Hrvoje Petek and his work on light, spatial behavior of light, and dark matter. Inspired by Petek and his research groups’ project of observing light dancin—“arrays of light vortices undergoing pirouetting motion,”— my piece offers to make light sing. To create a sonic interpretation of the movement of light across surfaces, I have built an original composition and performance based on light in terms of flow, velocity, directionality, and intensity. Ultimately, with the contemplation that if light can dance, it should conceptually be able to be rewoven into music both composed and improvised, in “Vortex Fields” I am seeking common ground between time and tempo, and light and sound.

Danny Frantina is a composer and trumpet player based in Pittsburgh and Istanbul. His work ties together improvisation and notation with themes of belonging, detachment, and control, incorporating the textures of coolness and panic, joy and fear, and perfection and disaster. His 2022 release Bb, in Isolation, is a collection of capturings of musicians in a moment in time balancing improvisation with the demands of notated music. His arranging and transcription skills have led to collaborations with the Boston Pops and the New York Youth Symphony Jazz Band. He was a transcriptionist for the Harvard University Natural History of Song postdoctoral ethnographic project. In 2024 his works will be performed by Ensemble Dal Niente and Nat28. Danny received his MA in composition from the Istanbul Technical University Centre for Advanced Studies in Music (MIAM) in Istanbul, Turkey, and holds a BM in Jazz composition from the Berklee College of Music. From 2019 to 2022 he was Lecturer of Jazz Composition at the Istanbul University State Conservatory. He now lives in Pittsburgh with his partner, ilkim, a brilliant anthropologist, and their dog Köfte, while he works on his PhD in composition and theory at the University of Pittsburgh

Faculty Researcher: Hrvoje Petek

Artistic Advisor: Charlie Peck

Performance Recording