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Flower Piano 2025: Women Composers
Women Composers Collective in collaboration with CWICO
Monday, September 15, 1pm-2pm
Ancient Plant Garden, San Francisco Botanical Garden
P R O G R A M
Disintegrating Epistles (2024)
Maracatu do Manatim (2017)
Improv #1
Sombras Remanescentes (2021)
Solomonks (2025)
Improv #2
In a Sentimental Mood
Living in the Moment of Inertia (2022)
Improv #3
Perfect Silence (2022)
Body of Water (2025)
Lillian Yee
Rebecca Hass
CWICO
Rebecca Hass
Lee Heuermann
CWICO
Arr. by Lee Heuermann
Joyce McBride
CWICO
Rika Ellis
Joyce McBride
N O T E S
Disintegrating Epistles (2024) by Lillian Yee
Disintegrating Epistles is a melancholy reflection on grief and letting go, written in the wake of my separation. It traces the process of saying goodbye—not only to someone I loved, but to the idealized version I had imagined.
The music evokes taking sanctuary in a dark forest within oneself, a space of solitude and reflection. Though inspired by personal loss, the piece invites listeners into their own inner refuge, offering a moment to confront transitions, process grief, or simply find solace and presence in the quiet depths of their own forest.
Maracatu do Manatim (2017) by Rebecca Hass
Maracatu do Manatim came out of one of my 100 Day Projects in 2017, in which I wrote 8 measures of music per day. I had written a set of composition prompts to use, one of which was to write an ostinato (repeating pattern) about an animal. I picked a manatee, because they’re one of my favorite animals, and it originally had more of a 70s cop show vibe, but once I realized it was pretty close to a traditional maracatu pattern, I had to transform it!
Maracatu is an Afro-Brazilian style of music played at Carnaval parades in Recife, Brazil, and typically has a much faster tempo, but for a manatee-themed tune, a slower groove works.
The manatee is represented by one hand of the piano playing long, sustained notes, and complemented by plenty of percussion in the original recording, but at Flower Piano we’ll be debuting a new arrangement that also includes harmonies played by 2 flutes!
Sombras Remanescentes (2021) by Rebecca Hass
Sombras Remanescentes (Lingering Shadows) is a dark, yet light samba that reflects the weirdness, vulnerability, and beauty of coming back to composing after the lockdown phase of the pandemic. It’s about the weird emotional roller coaster of 2020-2021, with its ups and downs - feeling a bit of distrust when things got better, with some hopeful sunshine poking through the clouds. I felt comforted by writing it, and I hope the same happens for listeners!
Solomonks (2025) by Lee Heuermann
“Solomonks” was composed for my son, Solomon, a drummer and pianist with a very playful sense of humor. When he was a child, we often called him “Solomonks”. It’s also a tribute to Thelonious Monk and the humor in his music, as well as his raw and sometimes raucous style of playing. In the piece, I’m working with obscuring the tonality and harmony. It’s scored for 3 flutes, piano and percussion and is in 5/4 with some sections in 3/4 time.
In A Sentimental Mood by Duke Ellington by Lee Heuermann
My arrangement of “In A Sentimental Mood” is a dreamlike reimagining of Ellington’s classic original. I wrote it for my husband, Danny, as a Valentine’s gift. In a sense the tune is deconstructed, as the singer only sings partially, as if she is dreaming of her lover and how she feels with him. The flutes, piano and percussion fill in other parts of the tune.
Body of Water (2025) by Joyce McBride
Written in 2025, this composition plays on the ways rhythms act like currents in moving water. At different depths, water moves in different time-zones. In the piece, the layers of rhythm flow into one-another, separate, and come together again. Various instruments come to the surface for improvisations, and return to the body of water. The title is also a nod to the human body, and the idea that perhaps our capacity for feeling rhythm is related to the fact that we are mostly water?
Though we often think of rhythm as beat-oriented, there is also a feeling of elasticity in rhythm (when it is human, and not made by a machine), that produces "groove". This arrangement was made especially for CWICO.
Living In the Moment of Inertia (2022) by Joyce McBride
The Moment of Inertia is a physics term that describes the energy or forex required to keep an object from flying off its axis. It holds the universe together, keeps the earth spinning on its axis, like the balance pole of a tight-rope walker. It also holds us in patterns both destructive and creative. As a phrase, "Living In the Moment of Inertia" has a few layers of meaning. I was struck by how this understanding of the word "moment" imbues it with power/force/energy rather than "stillness". The music was written a couple of years ago. Some sections were based on improvisations, other sections through-composed. This arrangement was made especially for CWICO. The piece is also on my recent album The Night-time Violets Bloom.
Perfect Silence (2022) is a seven-part variation composed by Rika Ellis as a tribute to her dear friend Margo Callard—a free spirit and extraordinary artist whose creativity spanned violin, theater, painting, singing, and writing. Originally written for solo piano during the stillness of the pandemic under the mentorship of jazz pianist Aaron Parks, the piece follows a highly experimental process. Each measure begins with a single bass note, moving only by a major 2nd or 6th. From there, only 3-4 carefully selected tones shape the harmonic structure and melodic movement, which is restricted within a simple quadruple meter. Traditional progressions are set aside, allowing the structure to emerge intuitively.
The form reflects the spiritual symbolism of the number seven—awakening, sacred energy, completeness, and divine order. Reimagined for piano, voices, and harp, this performance opens with a structural vocal improvisation and features one of Margo Callard’s poems - a final collaboration. Her presence echoes here - in silence, in sound, in love.
In loving memory of Margo Callard (1981–2024)
The world will not wait
The nights will be longer still
Each day marching us toward the finality
Of it all.
I've heard from my new age friends That now - right now - is the time
Of great awakening.
Oh would it be true
That harmony would sing on this Earth
Once again, a song we've known Since Adam welcomed Eve,
A song of perfect silence,
A song where we know all the words
And the rhythms are very clear
Even if they are nothing
Like we've ever heard before.
This is the song
We will sing as we are born,
The song we hum on our deathbeds,
The echo of which will blossom
Into stars above our heads
And the last embers on our heels,
Drifting into us the glad tidings
Only the truth can bring mere mortals.
C O M P O S E R B I O S
Lillian Yee began her musical journey in 2006 with a high school composition and through out the years has developed a diverse portfolio spanning classical, pop, and rock genres. Her career gained momentum in 2014 through commissions, and by 2015 she was writing pop and rock songs, performing with indie bands, and eventually launching a solo career in 2020.
Known for her 2022 brass quintet Miracles of the Human Condition, Lillian’s work has been featured in both national and international performances and radio debuts. Her orchestral piece Shadow Worker: Wind and Sea premiered in 2024 with the Awesöme Orchestra Collective at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, CA. In March 2025, she debuted her piano trio with percussion for Women’s History Month, The Fragmentation of Man, performed with members of the Women Composers Collective.
Influenced by Asian cinematic soundtracks, Brazilian vocal stylings, and contemplative musical themes, Lillian explores the emotional and structural
possibilities of music across genres. She is honored to serve as co-leader of the Women Composers Collective and is an active participant in CWICO. Her work
continues to bring personal narratives and immersive sound worlds to diverse audiences.
Rebecca Hass is a pianist, composer, collaborative pianist, educator, and creative coach in the San Francisco Bay Area dedicated to creative curiosity and joy. She has extensive experience collaborating with classical performers, groups, and movement artists, including Diablo Women’s Chorale, Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choirs, Bella Musica, Payvand Vocal Ensemble, and Opera on Tap SF.
With a deep passion for Brazilian rhythms, Rebecca has been part of the Brazilian music scene in the Bay Area since 2019, and performs solo shows of her own compositions and arrangements, as well as with Som Dela, Lillian Yee, and other groups. Other collaborations include the Berkeley Choro Ensemble with multi-genre bassoonist Paul Hanson, Echo Chamber Orchestra, Diablo Symphony, and her newly-co-founded Women Composers Collective.
Rebecca’s debut Brazilian album, Florescer (Bloom), was described as “a delightful 43 minutes of musical sunshine”, and her 2024 album of original piano music, Bright Little Worlds, is an imaginative, heart-filled collection of 22 compositions in various styles (Brazilian, jazz, impressionistic, neo-classical, and more), featuring guest musicians Debbie Gold (flute) and Brian Rice (pandeiro).
In her creative coaching practice, Rebecca helps musicians and artists reconnect to joy in their creative practices through curiosity and self-compassion. She is always designing new practices for herself, her students, and her creative coaching clients.
Beryl Lee Heuermann is a composer/singer-actor, pianist, flutist, and teacher of experimental and improvisational music. Well-versed in jazz, classical, and world musics, Lee loves the intersection between composing and performing, collaborating with artists of all genres. She is involved in sound/
music in relation to nature and contemplative practices and bringing women composer’s works to light. Her explorations focus on the nature of vocal timbre cross-culturally (African forest communities, Buddhist overtone chanting, and vocal traditions of N. India and Brazil).
Lee’s work, “Being Peace and the Power of the Voice” explores women who’ve used the voice as an instrument of peace. Lee was a featured speaker at the 3rd International Conference of Young Buddhists and Scientists (Hong Kong, 2013). She is currently composing an opera, Ruby, based on the life of Ruby Sales, Southern Freedom Movement and SNCC activist.
Lee was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts/Interarts Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship and her composition Ridge of Blue Longing, was awarded the Judith Lang Zaimont prize (International Alliance for Women in Music, 2011). Her performances have included Lust Into Small Change (one-woman cabaret show) and Danny Boy Blue (2018) with Danny Bittker (California Jazz
Conservatory). Lee has taught at University of Montana and at Virginia Tech’s School of Performing Arts where she was music director for Spring Awakening.
Lee lives in Berkeley, CA. She was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Computer Research in Music and
Acoustics (CCRMA) (Stanford University, 2001); has a Ph.D. in Composition (Stony Brook University, 2001); MM (Yale School of Music, 1993); BA (New England Conservatory, 1981).
Joyce Todd McBride grew up in Berkeley, California, and has benefited greatly from the Bay Area’s rich musical diversity and the beauty of its natural environment. Pianist, composer, singer, arranger, and teacher, Joyce attended UC Santa Cruz, University of Sussex, University of Pennsylvania and Mills College, where she completed a M.A. in composition, and won several awards. After further graduate studies in the Anthropology of Music program at U. Penn, where she focussed on music in Central Asia, Joyce returned to the Bay Area's vibrant musical scene and helped establish several music ensembles spanning medieval to new music. Joyce played with the Mills Gamelan and was a member of Gamelan Sekar Jaya. As a percussionist, Joyce accompanied the dance troupe Neva. In 2007 Joyce became the founding director of SF-based Conspiracy of Venus Vocal Ensemble, for which she has created over 40 arrangements of artists from PJ Harvey to Duke Ellington. Jazz was always part of Joyce's musical world, growing up listening to her dad's records, going to concerts at the Bay Area's iconic halls, and hearing her talented friends! Brazilian music has become an important part of Joyce's musical life as well. Her new album The Night-time Violets Bloom, (released in April 2025), features her original music for jazz quintet. Playful, eclectic, emotional, tricky, well-crafted, fun-to-play, edgy, gorgeous, up-there-with-the-greats, new, listenable, hip, never-heard-anything-like-it...these are some of the things listeners and musicians have said about this music. Other compositions include two privately commissioned musicals, "1934" about the Longshore workers' strike in San Francisco, and "The Fun Factory", about the history of the Whammo Toy Company. Joyce has also written several choral compositions, songs, and instrumental music. Joyce has been blessed to perform with Dream Kitchen, Calitropia, McBride Pera Starkweather, Mixus Mundi, Joyce McBride-Stacy Starkweather Duo, Volti, medieval ensemble HelioTrope, and Conspiracy of Venus, at many of the best venues in the Bay Area, including Piedmont Piano, Bird and Beckett, Freight and Salvage, Doc's Lab, Red Poppy, Amnesia, Verdi Club, Swedish American Hall, Cafe du Nord, Great American Music Hall, Lost Church, Old First, Noe Valley Ministry, Starry Plough, Stork Club, and many more. Joyce is an avid gardener and former white-water raft guide.
Rika Ellis is an acoustic and electro-acoustic composer, arranger, performer, sound designer, and educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her music draws on diverse influences—from the traditional sounds of her native Japan to classical, jazz/Latin jazz, Afro-Brazilian, experimental, and electronic forms—to create emotionally resonant works exploring the evolving landscapes of the human condition.
Ellis composes for contemporary dance, vocal and instrumental ensembles, film, and mixed media. Her recent projects emphasize collaboration with artists, choreographers, and dancers, often using minimal acoustic materials to create richly textured sonic environments. Her electro-acoustic works have been featured at SEAMUS, and one of her string orchestra pieces received the inaugural Allen Strange Memorial Prize from the San José Chamber Orchestra.
She began studying piano at age three and earned her BM in Composition, summa cum laude, from San José State University, where she studied music composition and electro-acoustic music with Dr. Pablo Furman and Dr. Brian Belet, classical piano with Dr. Gwendolyn Mok, and Latin jazz with Wayne Wallace. Recently she studied jazz piano and composition from the acclaimed jazz pianist Aaron Parks. She is a founding member of Creative Women Improvising Composers Orchestra (CWICO).
