Crab Gulag (2026) for wind quintet

Footprints in the Sand (June, 2026) for solo classical guitar I. Crab Gulag Written for the 2026 Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival at the Juilliard School Composed by Alejandro Lobo Performed and premiered by the Dumb Questions Aaron Dore, flute Olivia Leake, oboe Brandon Gordon, clarinet Brooks Wisniewski, horn Nicholas Woodward, bassoon FYI I'm aware it is not centered and it is, in fact, driving me crazy. The footage Juilliard gave me included all the included text and so I could only minimally center the video. =follow for more music= https://alejandrolobo.weebly.com https://www.instagram.com/alejandrolo... =note from the composer= Footprints in the Sand are a set of pieces that revolve around memory loss, geography, and zoology. Each movement is inspired by a beach or set of beaches in the three distinct locations I have lived. My experience in each of these environments has primarily been shaped and sustained by interactions with wildlife and anthropomorphism. Like footprints in the sand, clarity of memory is lost over time as I struggle with remembering the impact and ways I’ve interacted with and been changed by my surroundings throughout my childhood. Pairing my strongest memories of these locations (animals and nature) with the fading status of my memories felt like it overlapped from a metaphorical sense in addition to the literal connection. At a beach, we leave footprints, imperfect molds of our feet and evidence of our life and impact. With time these tracks are washed away, just like memories fading or disappearing over time. The fusion of these environmental and biological inspirations and explorations between the intersection of human and wildlife provide the framework for this quintet. I. Crab Gulag (Berkley, California) juxtaposes two pitch collections representing fight or flight survival instincts (the crabs) and childhood innocence and joy (six year old me). In early elementary school, on the shore of the San Francisco Bay, we’d take class trips to the bay. Lifting jetty rocks would reveal crabs who would fearfully and quickly scuttle away under a nearby rock. We would collect these crabs in buckets and then release them at the end of the period. To me, these experiences were defined by a child’s innocence, fun and curiosity. For the crabs, I imagine it was less enjoyable: a traumatic and seemingly life threatening experience. This particular memory has stuck with me over fading years and the juxtaposition between a child's innocence and joy and the primal survival instinct and fear of an animal in a child's hands presented an intriguing and engaging contrast to explore musically. ================================ Video and Audio Edited by Alejandro Lobo Recorded June 24, 2026 at the Juilliard School, New York City, New York #newmusic #contemporarymusic #composer #windquintet #flute #clarinet